Experts' views on crime prevention in Denmark
The Danish gang packages I–III focused in particular on preventing criminal gangs' armed violence and spirals of vengeance and combating drug crime. Thanks to these gang packages more severe criminal penalties could be imposed in cases related to criminal gangs. The need for stricter criminal sanctions has been emphasized in Danish criminal policy for a long time. In addition, the possibilities for the pre-trial investigation authorities to use coercive measures were improved.
Gang package IV is based on the authorities’ self-assessment of the functionality of the three previous packages. In order to identify key needs, various authorities, organizations, academic researchers and also experts by experience, who had exited the world of crime, were widely consulted during the preparation. The police have played a key role in the preparation.
Several authorities in Denmark feel that the measures of the previous gang packages have made a significant contribution, particularly to preventing violent conflicts between criminals. Harsher penalties have been used to get criminals out of the “market” for a longer period of time. This seems to have reduced the use of weapons in conflicts between criminals.
According to the police, restrictions on release on parole as well as area and residence bans have achieved some promising results. These have been considered to prevent conflicts between criminal gangs from escalating to violence. By court decisions, persons convicted of crimes have been issued with long-term residence bans, mainly in the Copenhagen metropolitan area. Residence bans have been assessed to constitute an effective means of getting gang members out of their usual environment. Short-term area bans imposed by the police have served to prevent the continuing circle of conflicts between gangs.
By administrative decisions, municipalities have banned criminal groups from using premises on the grounds of disturbance caused by their operations, for example. The ban has been considered to hamper criminal activities. Similarly, temporary inspection rights granted to the police to a certain area (visitation zones) have been found to prevent armed violence by criminal groups.
With gang package IV, more attention has been paid to the business activities of criminal groups and to preventing the growth of the criminal economy and the misuse of public benefits. Economic crime in its various forms has become an increasingly important part of gangs’ criminal behavior and income generation. The internal organization of the Ministry of Justice has also attempted to respond to this by breaking down the boundaries between units and bringing together different expert teams. In addition, the scope of cross-administrative Al Capone cooperation will be expanded from preventing the misuse of benefits to preventing other economic crime. Gangs’ economic crime is also prevented with double penalties.
Denmark has begun to build a center of competence type unit under the Ministry of Justice in order to better address the international "criminal market”. The duties of the national special unit for crime prevention (National enhed for Særlig Kriminalitet, NSK) include monitoring organized crime, combating human trafficking and economic crime, preventing money laundering and international crime prevention cooperation with Europol, for example. The unit has extensive expertise in crime prevention. Cooperation and information exchange have also been improved with companies and, in particular, the financial sector.
Denmark strives to reduce the recruitment of children and young people for serious crime in many ways. Examples include the multidisciplinary SSP cooperation (Skole, Socialforvaltning og Politi), which has already proven to be effective, and its more effective utilization in preventing the attraction of gangs. The knock-knock method and offering small-scale paid work to young people were mentioned as more recent methods.
The knock-knock method means early intervention in serious crimes committed by young people. The young people's nearest and dearest are informed of the situation and solutions are sought together with them. However, a careful analysis of a young person’s life situation takes a lot of time. During the experimental phase of the method, a cost-benefit analysis was carried out, according to which it is profitable to allocate resources to this activity. The activity has not yet been implemented extensively, but it seems to be a promising method.
Closing down of criminal organizations bearing insignia is seen as a promising new tool. The Loyal to Familia organization was permanently terminated in 2021 by a court decision, and the legal proceedings for the termination of the Bandidos organization are ongoing. Even though political decision-makers recognize the fact that the decision to terminate is only a partial solution to a difficult problem, it is expected to weaken the organizations’ ability to strengthen their brand and attract particularly young people to join their ranks. One of the challenges is the international nature of criminal organizations’ activities, which is why discontinued activities may continue elsewhere.
Although it has not been considered possible to reliably determine the effectiveness of all measures in Denmark, monitoring the implementation of the measures outlined in gang package IV is an important part of the whole. Targets and deadlines have been defined for individual measures. The actual situation is monitored regularly, and the responsible agencies report on the progress to the Ministry of Justice. In Denmark, the implementation of the measures has also been supported by the fact that many of the necessary regulatory changes have come into force quite quickly. A new overall assessment of the success of gang packages, based on the authorities’ self-assessment, is being planned.
7.2 About the situation in Sweden
Organized crime in Sweden
Based on the study visits, the societal impact of organized crime appears to be greater in Sweden than in Denmark. Benefit fraud in particular is a major economic and social problem. More criminal networks and gangs have been identified in Sweden than in Denmark, and their operational structures are also more diverse. Partly for these reasons, the situational picture of organized crime in Denmark has been based on somewhat more reliable information than in Sweden. The removal of barriers to information exchange has also improved the up-to-date nature of the situational picture in Sweden.
Mobility and international cooperation of criminals have increased. According to the authorities' assessment, criminal networks operating in Sweden are managed from nearly 60 different countries, e.g. Turkey, the Balkan countries, and Southern European, North African and South American countries. The aim is to bring criminal leaders working from abroad to criminal liability more effectively, why Sweden is engaging in increasingly close bilateral cooperation with countries such as Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Iraq and other Nordic countries. Sweden works also actively with the authorities of other Nordic countries and within the framework of Europol’s EMPACT cooperation to dismantle international criminal networks.
The age structure of criminal groups and networks has changed, and even very young children are involved in armed violence. Also, young people in a particularly vulnerable position, such as juveniles having absconded from child welfare units, are involved in criminal activities. Children and adolescents are also commissioned to commit aggravated offenses, such as drug trafficking and crimes against life and health. For example, they distribute narcotics or lure people into a violent trap. Criminal networks also include actors who are not connected to the conflict at hand, and who do not necessarily know the other members of the network or its management structure. So far, the majority of young people involved in serious crime have been men and boys, but the proportion of women and girls is increasing.
A criminal youth gang can slowly develop into an organized criminal group. On the other hand, youth gangs or parts of them can be included in existing organized crime networks. Sometimes children or young people are quickly placed in a position similar to that of child soldiers in criminal networks. Intervening in this phenomenon is made more difficult by the fact that children and young people have voluntarily started to choose a criminal lifestyle themselves and regard it attractive. The persons responsible for recruiting and managing the activities are often minors themselves. Recruitment can take place either online or locally in the neighborhood. The geographical ties of criminal groups are often still strong.
Previously, armed contacts took place between a few smaller groups, but recently the ties between criminal groups seem to have increased in these respects. The growth of violence is not necessarily cyclical, but continuous spirals of vengeance can feed it. Actors from an increasingly wide area are involved, and criminals move from one place to another. Violence has become more brutal and is also targeted at those close to the criminals. In addition, the exploitation of children and adolescents, who have no experience in the use of weapons in violent crime and homicides also poses a risk to bystanders.
Experts’ views on crime prevention in Sweden
The political will towards organized crime is seen as similar in Sweden and Denmark. This is a very serious societal problem, and a wide range of measures are needed to tackle it. The cooperation structures of the authorities were considered successful. However, if the same experts are involved in a wide range of cooperation groups, they might have challenges to engage fully in all activities.
The fight against organized crime in Sweden is closely linked to other strategies and action programs that promote security in society. It intersects with, among other things, strengthening national security, combating violent extremism and terrorism, and promoting various forms of social support. For example, the impacts of armed conflicts between criminals are broadly reflected in different functions of society.
The latest strategic program against organized crime from 2024 is based on a broad political consensus. According to experts’ estimates, it would probably not have been possible to build a similar program at the start of the 2020s. In Sweden, in addition to the authorities, many other actors have considered the measures mentioned in the strategy necessary and justified.
Stakeholders from different sectors of society were widely consulted during the preparation of the strategy. Approximately 150 people were involved in the process in some way. In addition, various surveys and reports by the authorities were used. The implementation of the strategy is monitored and reported for the Parliament. However, demonstrating genuine societal impact has been identified as challenging.
The deterioration of trust in society is considered to be a particularly worrying development. The links of criminal gangs, groups and networks to the structures of the welfare state in Sweden are so extensive that it is challenging to stop the development. Both the misuse of benefits and improper influence at different levels and sectors of society are related to this. The fight against organized crime is also linked to anti-corruption measures. As a result of this development, Sweden has begun to look for new means of crime prevention in countries where organized crime acts like a mafia that has infiltrated all areas of society and threatens the democratic rule of law.
In Sweden, immigration policy has only in recent years been seen to have a stronger connection with the fight against organized crime, unlike in Denmark. Sweden has adopted some of the criminal policy emphases that have been prevailing in Denmark, such as the grounds for making certain penalties harsher. In both countries, armed violence by criminals and the use of explosives as a deterrent have been key factors behind stricter criminal policy. The number of fatalities and those injured due to armed violence in Sweden increased significantly from the beginning of the 2010s to the first years of the 2020s. However, there have been signs of more positive development over the past couple of years, which may be an indication of the effectiveness of various measures.
In Sweden, more resources have been allocated to the police and other authorities, but they have not always been able to make full use of their potential in crime prevention and investigation. Experts estimate that citizens may assume the authorities’ powers to be broader than they actually are. Recently, it has also proven possible to advance regulation, which intervenes even more in citizens’ rights.
The operations of the police have undergone significant reforms in recent years. For example, the police have begun to act more proactively, and in a data-driven manner. Instead of performance monitoring, the importance of impact monitoring is emphasized. The focus has shifted from individual criminal actors and cases to connections between criminals and crime phenomena. New crime prevention methods are also tried out more boldly than before. In addition, the aim is to make the operational response more sustainable. For example, immediate follow-up measures are drawn up in connection with the release of a detained adolescent.
7.3 Estimates of future development in Sweden and Denmark
The strategic priorities for crime prevention are similar in Sweden and Denmark. The aim is to prevent the exploitation of children and young people in serious crime, to effectively tackle violent spirals of vengeance between criminal gangs, and to prevent criminals from infiltrating the legitimate economy. In addition, the aim is to increase the authorities’ powers and means, particularly as concerns information exchange and data-driven operations. Various solutions such as competence centers and multidisciplinary cooperation groups have proven to be good practices.