"The contacts are there if you want them. Drugs they could get even faster," said Sabrina Farlblad at the city's social services offices, where two years ago her team formed support groups for young people deemed at risk of becoming involved in violence.
So far the preventative approach appears to be working but fears remain while illegal guns - largely from the Balkans, according to police remain relatively accessible. As younger and younger children - some no older than 10 are recruited into the drug trade, the number of them using guns in conflicts with deadly consequences is rising. It is only a matter of time before guns from Ukraine find their way to Sweden, police believe.
Recent figures showed the number of 15-to 17-year-olds prosecuted for serious crimes such as murder and attempted murder had risen to the highest level since 2019. In the first six months of this year there were 42 people in the age group suspected of attempted murder. This compares with 38 during the whole of 2022.
In the past few days there have been several deadly incidents in Sweden involving teenagers, including a boy in his early teens who was arrested after a man died in a shooting in the southern city of Helsingborg. In a separate case, two 14-year-old boys were found dead in forest areas, reportedly murdered because they did not do tasks on behalf of a criminal network.
The scale of the problem recently prompted the government to announce plans to make it easier for schools, social services and police to share information to stop young people being pulled into crime and identifying at-risk children early. Various projects and techniques are being trialled, such as the scheme in Örebro, which lies between Stockholm and Gothenburg.
This story is from the August 28, 2023 edition of The Guardian.
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This story is from the August 28, 2023 edition of The Guardian.
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