Sweden is increasing spending on its justice system by 3.46 billion krona ($335 million) in its budget bill for 2025 in a bid to curb crime rates, the nation’s justice minister said on Sept. 11.
The justice system budget will grow by 8 billion krona, or 10 percent, year over year to 86.7 billion krona ($8.5 billion) in 2025, according to the plans.
The Scandinavian nation has become a hotspot for gang violence, often involving minors, over the past decade and now suffers the highest rate of gun violence per capita in the European Union.
Sweden has a population of just under 10.5 million people.
Swedish Justice Minister Gunnar Strommer said at a news conference that while the number of shootings associated with organized crime so far this year was lower than the same period in 2023, there is a risk of further outbreaks of violence.
“Things are still bubbling under the surface,” Strommer said. “We aim to restore security in Sweden for all honest citizens. This involves mainly three things: cracking down on serious violence, cutting off the criminal economy, and stopping the recruitment of children and young people into gangs.”
Strommer said the government plans to boost spending on the justice system to 100 billion krona ($9.7 billion) in 2027 from 69 billion krona ($6.7 billion) in 2023.
The center-right government coalition, which relies on support from the right-wing Sweden Democrats, is due to submit its budget bill for 2025 to Parliament on Sept. 19.
Earlier this week, Strommer said that a “realistic view” was that it would take a decade to fix the problem of gang violence in the country.
“The problems are certainly very serious, and it will take time to persistently reverse the trend, not the least regarding children,” Strommer told the Financial Times.
Earlier this year, the Swedish Parliament authorized the police to set up security zones, allowing them to carry out searches in certain areas without a warrant or probable cause. Strommer said the government was also toughening sentences for youth offenders.
“There’s a constant risk of spirals of new violence bubbling under the surface,” he said.
Authorities in Sweden have estimated that 62,000 people in the country are linked to criminal gangs.
The gangs were found to frequently recruit members from immigrant neighborhoods, with most of the violence occurring in Sweden’s three largest cities: Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmo.
The spike in gang violence has recently led to issues between Sweden and its neighbor Denmark.
Last month, Copenhagen announced that it would be increasing inspections on trains across the Oresund bridge linking the Danish capital with the city of Malmo.
At the time, Danish Justice Minister Peter Hummelgaard said that police would have access to more resources to monitor car traffic on the road crossing.
“We are increasing surveillance, in part to increase security, but also to prevent hired Swedish child soldiers who come to Copenhagen to carry out tasks in connection with gang conflicts,” Hummelgaard said.
He later said that since April, there had been 25 instances involving young Swedes being hired by Danes to commit crimes in Denmark.
