More work to do in support for defectors

There are still few children and young people who are supported to jump off the criminal life, simply because the authorities do not find them.

Now the police have developed a new internal support material to make them more easily identified.

The Police Authority, the Prison and Probation Service, the Swedish National Board of Institution and the National Board of Health and Welfare have collaborated in a government assignment since the autumn of 2024 to develop the work with support for defectors from criminal environments.

“We and the rest of society need to be better at finding children and young people as well as paying attention to girls and women in organized crime that needs support to be able to leave,” said Josefina Gunér, national coordinator at the police, in a press release.

In the police’s latest survey of individuals in criminal environments, women are estimated to be 5 percent of active members in different networks. A clear minority thus, although the report states that there is a risk that women’s participation in organized crime is underestimated.

In order to make it easier for defectors to take part in the support offered, it is proposed that the police continue to have the main responsibility, but that the contact routes should make clearer, including a special telephone number for departure issues and a customized website made more accessible to children and young people.