Swedish Stats Agency to Investigate Link Between Migration and Rising Youth Robberies

The National Council for Crime Prevention (Brå) will investigate the possible connection between migration and a recent trend of youth robberies across Sweden.

The council, which collects and publishes crime statistics, announced it will be conducting a survey focusing on whether victims and perpetrators of youth robberies come from Swedish or foreign backgrounds.

Some have claimed that many youth robberies involve migration-background attackers and Swedish victims. According to a report from broadcaster SVT, the rate of robberies in 2019 was the highest in a decade.

The trend of robberies of young people, many of which are accompanied by acts of humiliation and degradation against the victims such as being forced to kiss the feet of their attackers, has surged in recent years in some parts of the country.

Erik Nord, who serves as the police chief in Gothenburg, said earlier this year that youth robberies have increased by 25 to 30 per cent since 2015, the year the migrant crisis reached its height (for now, at least).

Maria von Bredow, an investigator at Brå, commented on the new investigation, saying: “We will look at it, but we don’t know what answers we will get. But where there is an identified perpetrator, we will definitely look at the background.”

“So far we can see that a large proportion, both of those who commit crimes and who are victims, come from socio-economically disadvantaged areas,” she added.

The investigation is set to look at around 800 cases and examine those from 2015 to 2019 using existing data as well as interviews with youths who have been robbed as well as perpetrators.

The announcement comes just over two years after Brå stated that ethnic data would not help its mission after an inquiry from Moderate Party politician Tomas Tobé.

“It a betrayal to the victims to actively rule out also looking at the foreign background of the perpetrators. It is obvious that Brå does not dare to do this because they lack government support,” Tobé said in 2018.

Despite a lack of official statistical data on the ethnic origin of criminals, independent studies by media and others have shown a vast overrepresentation of migrants in gang crime activity as well as shootings in cities like Stockholm and Malmo.

Follow Chris Tomlinson on Twitter at @TomlinsonCJ or email at ctomlinson(at)breitbart.com