In a survey of 1,314 members of the Swedish Police Association, 75 percent said the work of social services, schools and psychiatry is not working well in preventing children and young people from becoming involved in serious crime.
In the survey, several participants say that not enough resources are invested in schools, preschools and healthcare, and that the police are then expected to solve problems when it is already too late.
"As long as there are many children who see crime as a good career path, no amount of stricter laws in the world will prevent the recruitment of children and young people," says one of them.
"Politics must take this seriously. The best thing is that a crime is never committed. If you invest in preventing crime, you are also investing in what is best for Sweden," says Katharina von Sydow.
Responsibility of municipalities
She points out that most police officers welcome tougher laws and more police resources, but that the rest of society also needs to be better equipped.
It is primarily the municipalities that are responsible for both schools and social services. The municipalities also have a responsibility for crime prevention. And there are shortcomings there.
36 percent of the participants also disapprove of the police's own crime prevention work. In the survey, participants raise the alarm that police officers who work in crime prevention cannot carry out their work uninterrupted, but are used as a substitute pool for other police duties.
When I'm out and about meeting with the local police, they bring that up. There's no way to work continuously and systematically. When there's a shortage of police officers, local police are often called in.
“Incredibly important”
The association urges the country's politicians to reach agreements across bloc borders, where criminal policy and social policy are kept together in the long term.
This cannot be measured during a term of office. It is so incredibly important that it happens with conditions over time, says Katharina von Sydow.
At the same time, the Police Association proposes more area and municipal police officers, as well as more training in preventive work and gang crime.
The police authority has a large training backlog, not least regarding crime prevention work, says von Sydow.
Corrected: A previous version contained a calculation error and specified the wrong organization in one place.
