The government and SD are currently talking about a paradigm shift in criminal policy and they are talking about a variety of measures to get at the gangs.
– Swedish legislation is not designed for gang wars and child soldiers, but we are changing that, said Ulf Kristersson in his speech to the nation regarding the gross violence.
Some of the laws and tools that are proposed or that have recently come into force are curfews, custodial sentences, which mean that criminals can be locked up indefinitely, youth prisons and military assistance to the police.
Tommy Möller says that the proposals have been discussed for a long time and that the prime minister wants to show action by listing them in the televised speech.
– A general comment to all these proposals that are lined up now is that it is very important to bear in mind that we live in a democratic state governed by the rule of law. And that limits the room for action quite a lot, because many of these proposals are difficult trade-offs between legal certainty and legal cruelty, he says.
“There is no quick fix”
In Sweden, it often takes several months or years to enact a new law, from proposal to its entry into force. Tommy Möller believes that there is a risk in enacting new laws faster than usual.
– It can sometimes be justified to force the decision-making process, but the risk is that you might end up with legislation that is of a slightly lower quality than it could have been, and then the legislation becomes rather pointless, he says and continues:
– But it is very politically mined ground. The government knows that it will be judged the next time it is time for elections on how well it copes with these issues. These problems will not be solved, they will remain. You are naive if you think there is a quick fix, because there isn’t.
Moving towards a more authoritarian society
Tommy Möller tells us that we have gained more authoritarian values in society in step with the dramatic development. A few years ago, for example, it was thought that camera surveillance was unthinkable, but now it is something we are used to and people expect tougher measures and tougher punishments, he says.
– Within the idea of the rule of law, there is a conflict between legal certainty on the one hand and legal certainty on the other, that we should dare to go out on the town without being overly afraid. There we see how the slippage is very clear over time, that people move away from legal certainty ideas.
– So if this continues, which there is a lot of evidence that it does, we will see a continued development towards more authoritarian values in society.