Published 12 October 2021 at 14.31
Domestic. The police have released a new survey of criminal networks in Stockholm. The survey shows that levels of violence are increasing and highlights how networks recruit young people, and that it is creeping down with age.
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The police have identified 52 criminal networks in the Stockholm region, compared with 50 networks in the 2019 survey. Just over a fifth of the networks are new and the rest are permanent since the previous survey.
The survey shows that the increased level of violence in the Stockholm region in recent years is primarily explained by the fact that the environments where violence has previously occurred have become more violent, rather than by a widespread spread of serious violent crimes to new environments.
Furthermore, the networks in the survey show an increased geographical mobility compared with previous years, as well as a greater degree of criminal collaboration with other networks. Tendencies to more internal conflicts in the networks also contribute to the picture, according to the police.
Furthermore, it appears that the criminal networks' recruitment and involvement of minors to commit certain types of serious crime remains a phenomenon in comparison with previous years and is considered to be a serious threat to society.
– There are indications that the networks deliberately exploit young people due to the lower penalty scales and limited opportunities for coercive measures that apply, even to commit the most serious crimes such as murder, and we see that it is creeping down with age. In its negative impact on society, the recruitment of young people is considered one of the biggest threats that the criminal networks bring with them in the long term, says Anna Rise, who is head of the police intelligence unit in the Stockholm region, in a statement.
< p>According to the survey, several of the local criminal networks have adopted their own names which indicate that they are prone to violence, criminally successful and represent a certain local area. In addition to names and designations, common factors such as clothing and music can be used as identity-creating factors. A negative effect of this, according to the police, is that there is a risk that the networks use this as an attraction when recruiting young people.
The report also highlights the fact that more networks than before are judged to be centered around so-called leading criminals actors. According to the survey, such actors mean people who have a long history of crime, broad networks of contacts, are not dependent on a geographical base and have a drive to develop their crime and mask their own role.
To a large extent, these networks have their main income from drug trafficking, which is accentuated in comparison with previous years' surveys, although there is often also a leg up in economic crime.
Not infrequently, these individuals have their background in a local criminal network. This means that, given the growth of such networks that could be noted in the 2019 survey, there is a risk that networks around key players will increase in importance in the coming years.
– This type of player have an ability to use companies or other legal structures as criminal tools. We see that there are so-called enablers and specialists who help the networks in their criminal activities, and there the transparency has increased thanks to recent years' access to decrypted communication. It can be people who work in different industries, such as exchange offices, bank employees, accountants, lawyers and transport companies, who use their position to help the networks. This has a great negative impact on society and counteracting this is an important task for the whole society, says Anna Rise.