DN Debate: “It was not youth centers that turned the shooting curve”

Sweden’s shootings have fallen sharply, but the decline should not be credited to youth recreation centers, argues Ardavan M. Khoshnood in a DN Debatt article.

Khoshnood, an associate professor of emergency medicine, says Sweden has not defeated gang crime. He also argues that the explanation cannot be found in socioeconomic conditions alone.

His central claim is that authorities have introduced a long series of repressive measures. The precise effects of each measure remain unclear, he writes, and it is still too early to determine which interventions made the difference.

But in his view, one thing is clear: something changed after those measures were put in place. The article frames the sharp fall in shootings as a result of tougher policies rather than the social initiatives named in its headline.