Response to interpellation 2023/24:23 on the reduction of funding for crime prevention measures amidst increasing gang violence
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
M argues that Sweden is facing several threats to internal security 1 and that the government is implementing a reorganization with increased resources to the justice system and preventive work via social services 1. M argues that the plan is to strike hard against violence, choke the criminal economy, and break the recruitment of young people 2. M argues that economic austerity is required to return to a growing economy 2, that youth prisons are crime-preventive, and that inspection zones as well as stay bans are needed 3. S argues that large and expensive measures are required where welfare is used as a means 4. S argues that municipalities and regions are being brought to their knees 4 and that they receive too little money for their statutory responsibilities 5. S argues that the state's compensation is insufficient 6 and that a long-term, cross-bloc plan is required to finance both repressive and preventive parts 5. S argues that the secrecy legislation is good 7 and that a concerted effort for the entire society is required 7.
Written by AI in advance and may contain errors. The numbers lead to the speech a statement builds on; check against the text below.
Justitieministern Gunnar Strömmer (M)
Madam Speaker! Before I come to the answer to the interpellation, I naturally want to agree with much of what the Speaker has just expressed. We have a terrible day behind us, with incredibly brutal and tragic events in Brussels where two Swedish citizens have been killed and a third has been injured.
I think it is important, as the Speaker highlighted, to have full insight into the fact that this constitutes a threat to our entire free and open society. It is also important that we truly start from the people who have lost their lives - those who have been directly affected by the violence - and their relatives.
This also unfortunately confirms that Sweden is handling several threats to internal security in parallel. It was as late as August that the terror threat level was raised from 3 to 4 - unfortunately, we must say, to also account for the type of incident that we saw examples of yesterday. We also know that state actors such as Russia, China, and Iran are acting very offensively to promote their interests towards Sweden.
Then we also have the system-threatening serious organized crime, which in recent weeks has again shown its most brutal sides here at home in Sweden. It is not least in light of this that it is important to discuss the issues that have been raised today by Lars Isacsson and others when it comes to the crime-preventive work of preventing and deterring increasing gang violence.
Lars Isacsson has asked me how I justify the cuts in funding for crime prevention measures, especially in light of the current climate of gang violence. Furthermore, Lars Isacsson has asked me what measures the government and I intend to take to ensure that the municipalities have the necessary resources to handle the increased crime, especially among young people.
I want to start by saying that during recent years we have seen a very negative development in Sweden with gross and ruthless violence in criminal environments. We can also see that ever younger individuals are being drawn into the criminal networks. The situation is extremely serious, and the negative development must be broken.
The government is implementing a major reorganization of crime policy with more effective tools for crime fighting and increased resources for the justice system. In total, the justice system is expected to grow from 69 to 90 billion between 2023 and 2026. However, in order for us to reverse the development, both the rule of law and the welfare state need to be mobilized.
In last year's budget, the government had investments of over 2.1 billion on the preventive work for 2024. This year we are adding an additional 700 million kronor. This means preventive investments totaling 2.8 billion during 2024. These are funds that are to go to many things, including expanded home visit programs, reinforced parenting support measures, school social teams, developed sports activities, and an investment in a leisure card for children and young people. It is about early support measures to reduce the risk of serious problems and future crime.
Next year, the government will also present a new Social Services Act for a long-term sustainable, more preventive and knowledge-based social service. To stimulate the transition of the operations, we have proposed a competence and staffing initiative of 200 million SEK for 2024, 1.2 billion SEK for 2025, and 2.2 billion SEK annually 2026-2028. This means an investment in the social service of over 8 billion during this period.
We are also working to ensure that the social services have the tools they need to be able to work effectively. An investigation is currently reviewing how the social welfare committee should be able to decide on requirements directed at children and young people, such as that the young person should be at home at certain specified times, practice at a workplace, or participate in regular leisure activities. The investigation shall also propose an order that gives the social welfare committee the possibility to decide on open interventions for children without the guardians' consent. We are also working to create conditions for effective information sharing, that is, to remove confidentiality barriers, so that, among others, the police, school, and social services shall be able to exchange information with one another to gain collective strength in the work with children and young people.
The government is also developing the national and regional support to the municipalities in crime prevention work. On July 1, the municipalities received a statutory responsibility for crime prevention work, and in connection with this, the Crime Prevention Council and the county administrative boards have been tasked with developing the support they provide to, among others, the municipalities. We have also appointed a delegation that shall submit proposals on how reinforcement teams can be designed, which can support social services in their crime prevention work with children and young people.
In summary, the government is therefore making major investments in developing and supporting social preventive work so that fewer children and young people are drawn into or continue with crime.
Lars Isacsson (S)
Madam Speaker! I want to begin by thanking Minister of Justice Gunnar Strömmer for the answer to my interpellation. I also want to thank for the work that the Minister and the Government, together with the Swedish Football Association and responsible authorities in both Sweden and Belgium, have carried out tonight, and are still carrying out, to ensure that Swedish citizens and football supporters get home to Sweden alive from a Brussels where two Swedish supporters were murdered last night, which appears to be precisely because they were Swedish.
I understand that the Minister has not had much sleep tonight. It is the same for many of us. Some of my best friends were in those stands, so I want to thank you for this work.
Regarding my interpellation, I want to highlight the importance of crime prevention work. Sweden is in a horrific situation with gang crime and serious organized crime that is a threat to the system, children murdering children and pure executions of relatives or someone who just shares a surname. Completely innocent people are being killed. It is a development and a social climate that sometimes feels difficult to breathe in.
But we cannot give up. Society must join forces. I would wish that the consensus that has prevailed regarding increased resources and powers for the crime-preventing authorities and stricter legislation could be followed up by the same unity and determination regarding the crime-preventing work.
Early interventions against youth crime pay off in many ways. If children and young people who break social norms and rules receive support as early as possible, the risk of serious problems or a criminal career later in life is reduced.
Children's conditions during the first years of life play a major role for the entire life. In the countries where socioeconomic inequality is great, both trust between people and people's trust in society's institutions are lower, while crime is higher at the same time. Therefore, the fight against large gaps is also crime-preventing. Parental support and preventive work within maternal and child healthcare, preschool, and school ensure that risk factors can be detected early. The availability of leisure activities and something meaningful to occupy oneself with is also significant.
There are many good proposals and initiatives in the government's response. The pressing point, as I see it, however, is funding. Municipalities and regions are in an economic steel bath. Reports of large-scale layoffs are coming from all over Sweden. A few years ago, the big question was where one would get hold of the competent staff that one then needed to hire. Now, instead, it is about layoffs.
When cuts are made in municipalities and regions, it is the non-statutory activities that are looked at first. Many of the good proposals that the Minister had in the response risk never being realized.
Madam Speaker! My question to the Minister is whether the government, given the large cuts that are now occurring in municipalities and regions, will review the state grants to the welfare sector so that the mobilization for new recruitment that is needed can be carried out.
Sanna Backeskog (S)
Madam Speaker! I first want to join my party colleague's thanks to the Minister for Justice for the Minister's efforts following the horrific act in Brussels yesterday. My thoughts are with the relatives of those affected.
I also want to thank the interpellor Lars Isacsson for this important interpellation on crime prevention work.
It is my full conviction that we must highlight society and the sense of community in order to be able to push back the gangs. We are all affected by the violence that plagues our communities, harms people, and extinguishes lives in a brutal spiral of violence. The violence must come to an end, but it will take time. It will also require large and expensive measures. This requires political cooperation and a long-term perspective that extends over several parliamentary terms, but measures are also needed here and now.
When it comes to expenditure area 14 - that is, what concerns the justice system, such as the police, security police and correctional services - we agree on the amounts and have similar investments in our respective budget proposals. But, Madam Speaker, I would have wished for greater political consensus regarding economic priorities when it comes to equality-building and crime prevention.
Under the previous government, more than 80 penalties were tightened or added. The police have received increased resources, more tools, and two new police trainings. The police have also received more colleagues. But quite obviously, this has not been enough. Quite obviously, something else was needed. For every gang criminal who is picked up, three young people are in line to succeed him. We must settle decades of neglect of our welfare and our neglected residential areas.
For the last 20 years, the Riksdag has consisted of a conservative majority, and when the Social Democrats in government have tried to put forward proposals for a strengthened welfare state and a fairer tax policy, the threats of motions of no confidence have come as a bolt from the blue.
But I do not believe that we will be able to reverse the development without using the welfare system as a means. We must become much better at preventing violence and crime. Of course, all young people want to have a role in society. They want to be someone and be respected. However, a gang culture has emerged that has increased the distance to Swedish society, and where there are young people who seek respect and status among criminals and are prepared to pick up weapons to belong. We must break the gang culture and strengthen the sense of belonging to society – it is absolutely necessary.
In the Social Democrats' budget motion, we attempt to meet precisely these needs. For every krona that is spent on the police, at least as much must be invested in preventive work. That was our election promise during the 2022 election campaign, and we stand by the fact that it is what is required.
We must build around the children: invest in preschools and schools in vulnerable areas, invest in culture for young people, provide equality grants to schools and support the sports movement's work in reaching out to young people. We also propose that the maintenance support for single parents be strengthened.
In the Social Democrats' budget motion, the general state grants are also increased significantly. Municipalities and regions are on their knees and do not have the possibility to meet the great needs that exist in social services and school as well as in primary care.
Madam Speaker! Is the government prepared to reconsider its decisions regarding the support to municipalities and regions for the preventive work?
Justitieministern Gunnar Strömmer (M)
Madam Speaker! I thank Lars Isacsson and Sanna Backeskog for important contributions on very pressing issues.
I also thank you for the appreciative words, and it is not false modesty when I emphasize that it is primarily others who should be thanked for the efforts of the last 24 hours, not least our own police in cooperation with Belgian police. It is through a fantastically fine cooperation that the acute security situation has been able to be managed, the evacuation of the stadium in question, escort to and from hotels, and hopefully secure flights home. Praise be to those who deserve it.
We can, however, contribute from a political standpoint, and we have tried to contribute in the best possible way, not least through our own direct contacts with the Belgian government, which has been superb in providing information and in discussions on how the situation should be handled.
So, to today's interpellation topic. When we are to handle the situation Sweden finds itself in, it will require several different parts. The development that has brought us here has undoubtedly been ongoing for a long time. The deadly gun violence has tripled over ten years. Speaking of international cooperation: When I speak with my Nordic colleagues and compare last year's statistics on fatal shootings - 62 in Sweden, 4 in Norway, 4 in Denmark and 2 in Finland - it says a lot about the situation Sweden finds itself in.
In the spring, the police estimated that approximately 30,000 people are part of the criminal networks. That is a growth of three per day, which I believe was mentioned in one of the posts here. That means approximately 1,000 new people are recruited into the criminal gangs every year. The criminal economy turns over, according to the police, 100-150 billion kronor every year, and as recently as this morning I received information that globally, states of law and other authorities get approximately 1 percent of the criminal economy. It is, therefore, an enormously large challenge.
When it comes to the children, we can measure in different ways. So far this year, approximately 80 children have been charged with murder, attempted murder, or aiding and abetting murder – in other words, the most serious imaginable crimes. We are talking about children between 15 and 17 years old, as this statistic does not capture children under 15 years old. Ten years ago, that figure was 8. We see that nine out of ten Sis-placed children who are there because they have committed crimes reoffend. It is a monumental darkness if one looks at our starting point, and the development, as mentioned, has been ongoing for a long time.
The government's plan consists fundamentally of three parts: hitting hard against gross violence, strangling the criminal economy, and breaking the recruitment of children and young people into the gangs. I am of the firm opinion that nothing can happen without funding, and I perceive that over 40 percent of the government's budget goes to welfare. I have accounted for an extensive catalog of measures that specifically concern crime prevention work - everything from school social teams and investments in social workers to family support and so on.
With their long historical experience, the Social Democrats also know that if we do not crack inflation, the appropriations will be eroded year after year. This means an economic austerity in the short term so that we can return to a growing economy, also for the welfare, including the crime prevention work, in the future.
Lars Isacsson (S)
Madam Speaker! I thank the Minister for Justice for the answer. I agree that it concerns several different parts and a long period of a downward spiral, and we Social Democrats could definitely have done more during our eight years in government, not least regarding maintaining the funding for crime prevention work, for vulnerable areas, and for the municipalities that had to take a large responsibility during the refugee crisis in 2015-2016. It is difficult to run a good operation when money disappears after a few years.
Let me specify a bit what I mean by that the funding is the running point. The bill on the municipalities' statutory responsibility for crime prevention work, which the Minister also took up, is a reform that we agree on. It followed the previous Social Democratic government's program for crime prevention work.
To this reform, a funding of 20 kronor per inhabitant is added. Sweden's median municipality is Leksand with 16,000 inhabitants, which means that half of Sweden's municipalities receive a funding of less than 320,000 kronor, which corresponds to half a municipal police officer. Add to that the fact that in large parts of Sweden there are 0.36 municipal police officers per municipality. Since it is often the coordinator and the municipal police officer who are to coordinate the work, it is difficult to achieve equality across the entire country.
The municipalities' broad mandate means that, together with the Police Authority, they are considered to constitute the core of local crime prevention work. The central role that the municipalities have makes it of great importance that the work they carry out is effective and knowledge-based. There are a number of other important actors. In the bill, it is listed that the municipalities shall have contact with the Crime Prevention Council, the Gender Equality Authority, the Prison and Probation Service, the County Administrative Boards, the Agency for Family Law and Parenting Support, the Swedish Tax Agency, the National Board of Health and Welfare, the State Board of Institutions, the Swedish National Agency for Education, and the Swedish Customs Service. It is no small task we are placing on the municipality's coordinator, but the funding is small.
I know that the major crime prevention work takes place in the municipalities' regular activities, that is to say in preschool, school, upper secondary school, social services, leisure activities, libraries and community life. But I return to the fact that Sweden's welfare is facing a steel bath. Municipalities and regions, which have just made it through a difficult pandemic, are now hit with full force by inflation and cost increases, and 21 of 21 regions report that they will run a financial deficit this year. The consequences of this we have seen before: sharp cuts in healthcare, school, elderly care and social services.
I honestly believe that we Social Democrats would have handled the economic crisis differently, as we demonstrated during the pandemic.
I have previously said that the government and SD only see half of the problem, that everything cannot be solved with harsher penalties and that it does not have to be either-or but must be both and. In its response, the minister sees the whole picture but does not finance the whole picture.
When I was a municipal council member, we had a thought that every krona invested in preventive work gave four back. But then it is a matter of having that first krona. One must also have an economy that adds up, and not many municipalities have that now.
Madam Speaker! Is the government prepared to set aside its pride and, together with the opposition, develop a long-term, cross-bloc plan to stop the terrible development? It is about a plan for how we strike at the criminal economy, which finances much of the crime, and a plan for both the repressive and the preventive work with funding for both parts.
Sanna Backeskog (S)
Madam Speaker! The terrible wave of violence and gang crime is a national, and indeed also an international, matter. We all know that the perpetrators of violence have not acted in isolation in their neighborhood or in their municipality. The measures that the municipalities are taking here and now make a difference at both the individual and societal levels. The municipalities are fighting hard for Sweden's best.
I want to return to what Lars spoke about regarding the municipalities' statutory responsibility to work on crime prevention. In Gävle municipality, with its more than 100,000 inhabitants, they spend approximately 30 million per year on the specifically targeted crime prevention measures. This involves, for example, the social services' family support and field assistants who are present where young people are. They catch those who are drifting and cooperate with the social services, the school, and the police as well as with the family.
Important work is also taking place in the schools. From preschool to upper secondary school, Gävle's schools work with violence prevention efforts, such as Stopp min kropp, Mentors in violence prevention, Agera tillsammans, and Machofabriken. The goal is to, together with children and young people, prevent violence before the violence occurs. The compensation from the government is just enough for a single full-time employee. It is not enough.
In the neighboring municipality of Sandviken, with 39,000 inhabitants, an intensive crime prevention work is also underway with field assistants and the acclaimed cooperation with Drogfri skola. Also worth mentioning is Spira, which is a unique governance model where the entire community collaborates to secure the upbringing environment for children and young people.
The state is contributing 817,000, this at the same time as the entire municipal welfare sector is on its knees and municipal politicians all over the country with different party colors need to puzzle out very difficult priorities.
Madam Speaker! I would once again like to speak about the extremely urgent matter that we need to ensure that the municipalities and regions can do their part in the crime prevention work. The whole country will benefit from it.
Justitieministern Gunnar Strömmer (M)
Madam Speaker! I thank Lars Isacsson and Sanna Backeskog once again for their important contributions, and I particularly want to highlight the municipal experience that has been expressed in the contributions. Simply put, one can say that very little here in the world works if the municipal councilors are not on board. This applies in particular to the social preventive work.
I would like to say that it is a great strength with the budget that the government is now presenting. In addition to the fact that it adds 16 billion to the municipalities in state grants, which constitutes 40 percent of the budget that is being put on the table, if I am not miscalculating, a large portion of that is also an expression of a very offensive way of looking at social preventive work with everything from the family support, the student social teams, the long-term investment in the social services and much more, and this in itself is factually correct. Furthermore, it is a budget that has a majority in the Swedish Riksdag, which means that it can pass.
A quick overview of the alternatives gives a somewhat more fragmented picture, if I may put it that way. A good way to get pressure into the municipal economies is to vote for the government's budget. It is carefully elaborated and calculated and will also reach the municipalities with very great precision.
I would also like to say something about the repressive and the social preventive. A very large amount of what we invest in the justice system as a whole is to a high degree crime-preventive; they are crime-prevention programs.
If I may start at a completely different end: The youth prisons that I understand there is broad support for in the Swedish Riksdag, which I find very pleasing, are also extremely important from a crime prevention perspective, and for several reasons. If we can remove 100-150 of the most serious criminals - who today are in the Sis homes, which are organized for a completely different time and a completely different reality and equipped to meet youths with completely different needs - we will be able to take care of the most serious criminals in such a way that the probability of nine out of ten entering new crimes after the sentences decreases, because we place these children under the management of the criminal justice system.
In the investigation that was released in August, it points out precisely the crime-preventive purpose of this. It is a conditional release that is organized, where there is an opportunity for supervision, continued treatment, and continued education and so on. Furthermore, we relieve the pressure on the Sis homes so that they can be directed towards all other youths, which in turn will relieve the pressure on the HVB homes and the foster homes. Everything is connected.
I mean that some things that are perhaps written a bit lightly on the repressive account are some of the most important things we can do also in a crime-preventing, crime-preventive, purpose.
There is no doubt that funding is of paramount importance, but a question of exactly the same weight and significance is what can be done with the money. Lars Isacsson touched upon the difficult municipal equation regarding the situation with the locally present police and the resources in the municipality. An extremely essential matter is to clear the confidentiality barriers that today prevent effective cooperation.
We will come with the proposal on this next week. We will come to the Riksdag as soon as possible, and then I hope for a very large turnout. When we do this now, it means that the money we invest from the national level will also be able to be used in a way that gives significantly much more output for every invested krona, when police, school, and social services can sit in the same room and share information. We get a completely different systemic power against children and young people drifting away.
Lars Isacsson (S)
Madam Speaker! I would like to once again thank Minister of Justice Gunnar Strömmer for the debate. It is very interesting, so one can continue for a long time. I just want to comment on something the Minister said.
I think the secrecy legislation is very good. We should have done this a long time ago. I am on leave from my job as a teacher at a junior high school where I worked with children in need of special support. I thought it was terrible that the social services were like a large black hole. Then I became chairman of the care board and realized that the school is a rather fragmented organization and that no one could talk to each other. So we should have done this a long time ago.
Today is a day of sorrow: It is another Drottninggatan, this time in Brussels. If one adds Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Hamas's horrific acts of terrorism against Israel, the situation for the innocent in Gaza, and the devastating gang crime here at home, it is easy to become depressed and lose momentum. But we cannot afford that. We are politicians because we want to change society for the better.
My honest view is that if we are to tackle the heavy organized crime and the gangs, we need a mobilization of the entire society that has not been done before in Sweden. It is also my view that two state-bearing parties, such as the Moderaterna and Socialdemokraterna, need to be involved. There must be an agreement, a long-term perspective, and funding over time – no short-term projects, no populism, and no simple solutions, which the government's coalition party, in my opinion, engages in.
Justitieministern Gunnar Strömmer (M)
Madam Speaker! I would like once again to thank Lars Isacsson for the initiative to a very important discussion. I fully share the view that long-term perspective and perseverance, and a well-thought-out and sincere idea of what the national level should contribute to the local level, are crucial for the conditions to succeed in the local community and thus also succeed nationally in pushing back the serious organized crime.
I want to emphasize the government's three pillars in the plan to succeed with this. It is necessary to strike hard against gross violence. In January, we will introduce double penalties for gross weapons offenses and gross explosives-related offenses. In February, we will introduce police stay bans. It is a very intrusive way to protect both victims and residential areas from the perpetrators. In March, we will introduce proposals for visitation zones, which I know is a bit more charged in the Swedish debate. I mean, however, that from a Danish experience perspective, it has been an important part to be able to break patterns. I believe we must dare to do what we have not done before if it is not to go as it has gone so far. I hope for broad support in all those parts.
When it comes to crime prevention work, that which exists on the social side, I want to emphasize - even though my main area of responsibility is justice policy - that if we do not get the welfare state in order, if we do not get a full grip on the connection between the rule of law and the welfare state, we will not succeed in the task of breaking the new recruitment. If we do not bring together different parts of the public sector, far outside the domains of the Ministry of Justice, we will also not be able to choke the criminal economy.
If today's discussion is to be a call on a broader scale, both here in the chamber and in society at large, to create the conditions to break the crime, I am more than happy to stand behind that battle cry.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.