According to statistics Sweden is the most dangerous country in Europe

The award-winning Swedish rapper Einár was shot dead on the night of October 21 at 11 p.m. on his doorstep in the Stockholm suburb of Hammarby. The perpetrator had stood very close in front of him and then pulled the trigger. The background to the crime has not yet been clarified, but the police do not want to rule out that Einár, as a rapper, had contacts with various gangs.

Einár's real name was Nils Kurt Erik Einar Grönberg. He was only 19 years old and with his death part of a terrifying Swedish statistic. Because Einár is the 217th shot victim that Sweden has had to complain about in the past five years.

Sweden is the most dangerous country in Europe today.
The former Nordic model country has turned into a real nightmare since 2005. The number of murders is falling across Europe. Only in Sweden is it steadily increasing. This is shown, among other things, by a study carried out by Brottsførebyggande rådet (BRÅ), the Swedish committee for the prevention of crime.

Terrifying numbers
In the EU, an average of eight people per million are victims of fatal violence. In Sweden, the number was twelve people per million in 2020. When it comes to the victims of firearms, the difference between Europe and Sweden is even greater. In the EU, an average of 1.6 people per million people die from gunshot wounds - in Sweden the figure is four, almost three times as many.

The difference becomes even bigger if you only look at the age group of 20 to 29 year olds. In most EU countries, the number is between zero and four firearm victims per million inhabitants. Sweden, on the other hand, has 18 deaths per million inhabitants. In second place is the Netherlands, which has "only" six deaths in the age group of 20 to 29 years of age per million inhabitants.

However, when the study was published, BRÅ drew attention to the fact that the comparisons unfortunately sometimes lag. The Swedish figures are from 2020, the EU figures are three years older because only Sweden was able to provide up-to-date statistics. Also, crime is not as thoroughly recorded in many countries as it is in Sweden.

For example, Germany only appears marginally in the Swedish study, as there is no recent research or statistics on the causes of murder, murder weapons and so on in the Federal Republic of Germany. According to Statistica.com, there were 2.9 murder victims per million inhabitants in Germany in 2020. The Statistica analysis does not show who is the victim of firearms or gang crime. But it is clear that Sweden, with a total of twelve murder victims per million inhabitants, is far more dangerous than Germany.

Search for the cause
Most of the shootings in Sweden were caused by gang violence. "Drug trafficking is a key issue here and there are strong links between shootings and bombings and the drug market," Swedish police said recently when a gang crime investigation was published.

These gangs usually fight in the satellite towns of Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö.

Why it has been becoming more and more dangerous here for around 15 years is one of the big questions that numerous experts have been dealing with for a long time.

The criminologist Manne Gerell from the University of Malmö gave the newspaper Aftenposten a list of possible causes.

According to Gerell, three reasons are the increase in gangs and criminal networks, the poor integration of immigrants and the housing projects of the 1960s and 1970s. At that time, Sweden relied on new suburbs with millions of programs, which mostly consisted of prefabricated buildings and still exist. Today there are around 60 such suburbs, in which mostly immigrants or socially disadvantaged Swedes live. Free choice of schools was also introduced in Sweden in the 1990s. The concrete suburbs and the free choice of schools meant that many groups remained isolated among themselves after immigration to Sweden.

Journalists only concerned about the image of Sweden

The article published by German newspaper Bild caused a huge debate in Sweden. Journalist Sofie Donges, who works as a Sweden correspondent for the German public service company ARD, believes that the German media reports a lot about the recent gang conflicts and shootings in Sweden.

Sofie Donges believes that there is more nuanced reporting on Swedish gang crime.

"It's a bit of sensational journalism. I have read other articles that were more differentiated and told that there are certain areas that really have big problems, but that it is not dangerous to go to Sweden," she said during an interview.

According to her, however, the image of Sweden has changed, both due to the handling of the corona pandemic and due to gang crime.

"The positive image of Sweden is so strong and old, gang crime and pandemic management become additional pieces of the puzzle that complement the image, but it does not change completely," she added.

"It will of course damage the image of Sweden," said Jona Källgren, TV4Nyheter's broadcaster in Germany.

Sources: Bild / svt.se / tv4.se