It is the so-called problematic areas of exclusion, which are the material and social cause of gang crime. Police have identified 55 such areas in 22 cities. In these immigrant-dense and non-Swedish districts, we have brought in foreign clans, (from Lebanon and Somalia and more) which organize and carry out deeply criminal acts. The police have mapped 40 such clans with about 5000 individuals, who came to Sweden for the sole purpose of seizing power in a district to rule and control drug sales, thefts, etc. to make money.
It is these subversive parallel societies with their own informal ”laws” and power structures that make it so difficult for the police to access gang crime. It is the principals, the leader who plans and decides and young people who carry out the crimes. As these get stuck, there are constantly new recruits, fashioned in this environment, taking their places. Talking about failed integration in these areas is not relevant. These people do not want to be integrated and become part of the Swedish society. They want to live in their own world. And we have to make sure that they do not continue with that!
What should we do about the misery then? It is obvious that we must be much better at preventing such subversive people from entering the country. And much more effective to expel those who do not have the right to be here. We must give the police much better opportunities and resources to penetrate these environments and clans. It is about new technology for eavesdropping and inspection. Hearths such as Rinkeby, Angered, Rosengård and other similar areas should become visitation zones. At the same time, a collaboration between the housing companies, the police, the social services, etc. to simply evict the criminals. They should have no place to live in the Swedish society!
The police must be given the opportunity, through cooperation with other authorities, to access the clan leaders through prosecution for crimes other than gang crime, which due to fear and silence are difficult to access. It is a matter of prosecuting them for financial crime, benefit fraud, tax evasion, traffic offenses and other crimes they commit in everyday life. And make sure they stay in jail for a long time! A proposal to let foreigners serve their prison sentences in the countries they come from is a good idea.
It is also time to give up the inherently humane idea of adapting criminals to a law-abiding life in society. This was done by the punishment really being prison care, with the emphasis on care, so that inmates do not become even more deviant and dissociated from society with a criminal identity. It was rightly thought out when we implemented these thoughts in criminal law. But today we have a completely different society where it is pointless to believe that the gang criminals should be adapted to society and live a normal life. This is foreign to them because as children they already have an identity that stands outside, lives in such an environment and wants to make a career in the criminal world. We have known this phenomenon for a long time, but wanted well and were both kind-hearted and gullible, not to say naive!
But it is obvious that we do not approach gang crime solely with methods at these levels. We need to delve deeper into these sub-environments. It is about family therapy to process dysfunctional families from which the young criminals are recruited. Schools should have many counselors to help and empower students to get out of these environments and blood ties. Not least, we need to work to fundamentally change the environments through community organizing. These are multi-way strategies that aim to help the sensible and frustrated in the local community to organize themselves so that they can withstand the threats and above all create productive social environments where they can develop cohesion and community based on their own conditions and resources. Among other things, these methods have been used successfully in the USA.1) It will not work to rely solely on the police to solve the problems through law enforcement.
The police must take care of the criminals, at the same time as community workers help those who want to become members and integrated in the Swedish society to work together to form a spirit and do not accept crime. These people should be helped to organize to take self-control over their environment. They must be strong enough to have the strength and courage to stand up to the clans. It will not be easy and must take place on several levels simultaneously and in very close cooperation with the police, who have the right to use violence against the criminals. The police, who have the best insight into the criminal clan environments, advocate this type of multi-way strategy and it is probably the only way to eventually clean up and liquidate these hotspots in the Swedish society.
Alf Ronnby
PhD in sociology, associate professor of social work
Literature suggestions:
* Block Peter (2009) Community
* Brager et al (1987) Community Organizing
* Hutchinson ed (2009) Community work in the Nordic countries
* Homan Mark (2008) Promoting Community Change USA
- Kahn Si (1991) Organizing USA
- Kretzmann John McKnight John (1993) Building Communities from the Inside Out
- Medoff Peter och Sklar Holly (1994) Streets of Hope
- Ronnby Alf (1995) Mobilizing local communities, Aldershot Avebury
- Staples Lee (2016) Roots to Power, a manual for grassroots organizing
Kritikern Alf 