– We may think we see a certain marginal increase in, for example, drug trafficking, where young people occur in drug trafficking. We can also see certain behavioral patterns downwards in age, what norms there are and how to treat people, says Magnus Nordahl, head of the children and family section in Falun.
The social services in 26 municipalities in Sweden today receive more reports of concern about children and young people who are suspected of being involved in gang crime compared with five years ago. This is shown by TT’s survey, which was sent out to Sweden’s 290 municipalities and to which 179 responded.
Among the municipalities that are experiencing an increased problem, in addition to Falun, there are also Motala, Skövde and Uddevalla.
– We see that there will be younger individuals and we see that it is more widespread. It is more difficult to access, it is more advanced criminal behavior, says Kerstin Windemo, section manager for children and young people at the social services in Uddevalla.
In order to break the trend, Magnus Nordahl in Falun believes that the social services need to be able to force guardians to open interventions such as family treatment.
– We have to suspend very many cases due to the lack of consent and the seriousness is not extensive enough to proceed with coercion. You wish you could work more to get people to open efforts to get them motivated and understand why they need help, says Magnus Nordahl.
