On Friday, a 15-year-old girl was arrested on suspicion of double murder after the shootings in Vårby outside Stockholm on Monday and in Rosengård in Malmö on Wednesday.
The circumstances surrounding this week's shootings are being investigated. According to SVT Nyheter, there are suspicions of a connection to organized crime.
Camila Salazar Atías, criminologist at Fryshuset in Stockholm, believes that girls and women are vulnerable in these environments, and that society has not been sufficiently attentive to their situation.
Seen as a consumable item
"Children are defenseless; they have no power, they have none of what is usually called violent capital in these environments. The criminals don't care what happens to the children, and they are treated and seen as consumables," she says, continuing:
You could say that gangs are good at finding the weaknesses, the gaps, in society. For example, girls end up under the radar, we don't see them, we don't discover them. Then they become a strategic tool for gangs to use if they want to get away.
In the past, society has perhaps mostly viewed or treated girls as victims of crime, says Salazar Atías.
But there is this duality: someone can be both a victim of crime and, though not always, a perpetrator or enabler of crime.
Multiple murders of teenage girls
Statistics from the Swedish Council for Crime Prevention (Brå) that SVT Nyheter has reviewed show that ten teenage girls were convicted of murder in Sweden during the period 2015–2024. Half of the convictions, five, came in 2023–2024. The year 2025 has not yet been compiled.
Camila Salazar Atías, who is also active in the Social Democrats but does not speak out as a politician, believes that there is a lack of general knowledge about what can attract girls into crime.
"There are handbags that cost 30,000–50,000 kronor and we don't know about them. We don't know how much different cosmetic procedures cost, or a coat from a famous brand. We mostly know about those types of things from the guys' side," she says.
Wednesday's shooting in Rosengård is suspected to have been carried out by the 15-year-old girl, who denies the crime, together with a 17-year-old boy who has confessed to the crime. Both have been remanded in custody. A 35-year-old man has also been remanded in custody despite his denial for aiding and abetting the murder in Rosengård.
