In Wednesday evening’s debate on SVT’s Aktuellt, Justice Minister Gunnar Strömmer (M) and the Social Democrats’ legal policy spokesperson and former civil and social insurance minister Ardalan Shekarabi discussed how Sweden should deal with increasing gang crime.
Abolished penalty discount in the Tidö agreement
Among other things, the lowered age of criminal jurisdiction, preventive measures and the abolition of the penalty discount were discussed. The previous government removed sentencing discounts for 18- to 20-year-olds for crimes with a minimum sentence of one year in prison
The Tidö agreement wants to go further and abolish the penalty discount entirely from 18 years and above, and that an abolished penalty discount for young people under 18 should be investigated.
(S): Increases crime risk
The Social Democrats’ legal policy spokesperson and former civil and social insurance minister Ardalan Shekarabi points out that the previous government referred the issue.
– Expert referral bodies were quite agreed that there are serious risks that it may even increase the risk of crime if young people who commit less serious crimes are exposed to the risk of ending up in gang crime or even violent extremism.
(M): Do like Denmark
But Minister of Justice Gunnar Strömmer believes that there are already many good examples in Sweden’s geographical vicinity to follow.
– I think we should be influenced by the experience in other countries. If we, for example, our Nordic neighboring countries, and if we look at Denmark, which is one of the countries that has actually managed to push back serious organized crime and gang crime.