Ensuring children growing up in Sweden today don’t fall into a life of crime would take at least a decade. “That is a very realistic view on the time perspective,” Strömmer said.
Gang crime and migration have become hot button issues in Sweden, propelling the far right to electoral success.
Much of the bloodshed is perpetrated by internationally linked gangs who recruit children into their ranks. Last September, after a 25-year-old woman was killed in a gangland bombing, Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson vowed in a rare televised address to “hunt down the gangs.”
Earlier this year, the Swedish parliament authorized the police to set up so-called security zones, allowing them to carry out searches in certain areas without a warrant or probable cause. Strömmer said the government was also toughening sentences for youth offenders.
“There’s a constant risk of spirals of new violence bubbling under the surface,” he said.