Homicide in the criminal milieu

Since the beginning of the 1990s, the number of homicides in Sweden has steadily declined, at least until a few years ago, when the decline came to an end and the curve started to turn upwards. However, the level of homicides today is still lower than that witnessed during the 1990s. An earlier study by Brå showed that different types of homicide have followed different trends over time, and that the main cause of the increase seen in recent years is found in homicides arising from conflicts in the criminal milieu. The same study also showed that this type of homicide has been increasing since 2013, and at a faster rate in more recent years, which has also had an impact on the total number of homicides in Sweden (Brå 2019b).

The present study was conducted in order to take a more detailed look at homicides arising from conflicts in the criminal milieu. The study encompasses all registered cases of homicide from the period 2005–2017 that have been categorised as homicides arising from conflicts in the criminal milieu. This involves a total of 216 cases, of which 84 cases come from the first eight years of the study period (2005–2012) and 132 cases from the remaining five years of the period examined (2013–2017). This corresponds to an average of 11 cases per year during the earlier period and 26 cases per year during the later period. The highest annual number of cases during the entire study period was 34 cases in 2017.