The majority of the suspects in shootings in the city of Malmö come from migration backgrounds, according to a report from Swedish media.
The report, conducted by newspaper Sydsvenskan, examined 20 young men aged between 20 and 28 years old who have been suspected of having shot someone personally, having planned a shooting, or simply participated in a fatal shooting in another capacity between 2015 and 2019, Swedish newspaper Expressen reports.
In total, the 20 men have been convicted for 180 different crimes between them from simple robberies all the way to murder.
The majority of the men, 14 of 20, were born in Sweden to parents who had migrated to the country from Africa, the Middle East, or elsewhere, and 17 are said to have Swedish citizenship. All but two of them lived in so-called “vulnerable areas” often referred to as no-go zones.
For among half of the 20 men, their parents had also been convicted of various crimes including smuggling and drug crimes pointing to an intergenerational trend, although others came from more affluent economic backgrounds.
Some of the men began their careers in crime as young as 1o years old, according to the report, but none of the various state programmes offered to help them get out of the criminal underworld had worked, with social services claiming their resources have been “exhausted”.
Two of the men have also died as a result of being shot themselves, while four others were shot but survived the attacks.
The new report matches similar statistics from an investigation released by broadcaster SVT last year that showed migrant-background men made up the vast majority of convicted rapists.
Previously, whistleblowers such as police officer Peter Springare were met with heavy criticism for suggesting that migrants and those from migrant-backgrounds were behind the vast majority of serious crime in the country.
In 2017, Springare was investigated for incitement to racial hatred for his remarks, although the charges were later dropped.