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Demokratiskolan
The Organised crime card from MethodKit for Society and Politics
Card 83 of 128 · MethodKit for Society & Politics
  • AreaSafety & defense
  • Centre of gravityCentral government
  • Points of influence3 on the journey
  • Decisive electionThe general election
Safety & defense

Organised crime

People conducting crimes in an organized way

Organized crime lives on money: narcotics, fraud and cheating with welfare systems. That is why it is fought not only by the police but by a whole team of public agencies, and by municipalities that close the local gaps. Few areas show more clearly that safety is teamwork.

Where does the power lie?1

  • Municipality · prevention, inspection & exit support · approx 20 %
  • Region · care & addiction care · approx 5 %
  • State · police, laws & agency team · approx 70 %
  • EU · europol against the networks · approx 5 %

The central government leads the hunt for the networks, but the municipality decides how hard a foothold they get locally. The general election and the municipal election both matter.

How it works: the breakdown

The municipalityThe local resistance
The regionHealthcare's part
Central governmentThe agency team · centre of gravity
Who decides?
The municipal executive board (kommunstyrelsen), the social welfare committee and the licensing units, in cooperation with the police.
The region's addiction care and psychiatry.
The Police, the Swedish Prosecution Authority, the Swedish Tax Agency (Skatteverket), the Enforcement Authority (Kronofogden), the Social Insurance Agency (Försäkringskassan) and the Swedish Customs (Tullverket) in a coordinated effort.
What do they decide?
Preventive work, exit support, inspection of bars and association grants, and protecting its own welfare against infiltration.
Addiction care that reduces the narcotics market's customer base, and care for those leaving crime.
Investigations, legislation against the gangs, and choking the money flows: seizures, tax audits, debt collection and stopping benefit fraud.
Where are decisions made?
In the municipality's situation picture, licensing decisions and cooperation agreements with the police.
In the region's care budget and priorities.
In the Riksdag's laws and the joint agency effort against organized crime.
Who pays?
Municipal tax: social services, inspection and exit support.
Regional tax.
The central government budget: the justice system and the control agencies.
Fastest way in?
The municipal election The municipal election steers the preventive work. Community associations and night patrols are concrete efforts.
The regional election The regional election steers the resources for addiction care, an overlooked but real part of the puzzle.
The general election The general election steers laws and resources. Tips to the police can be left anonymously.
EUThe networks are borderless, so Europol and the EU's prosecution cooperation tie the countries' investigations together. Shaped in the European Parliament election.

Read the table by column to understand one level, or by row to compare the levels. The green level is the area's centre of gravity.

How it works: follow the decision

The case A local network is pushed back
  1. State

    The Riksdag sharpens the tools

    Laws on secret coercive measures, area bans and tougher sentences for gang crime are decided by the Riksdag, after inquiries and referral rounds where the privacy questions are weighed.

    Point of influence

    The general election steers the legislation, and the referrals are open to anyone who wants to scrutinize the proposals.

  2. Municipality

    Municipality and police share a situation picture

    The local map is drawn together: which settings recruit young people, which businesses launder money, which addresses keep coming up. The municipality's statutory situation picture and the police's intelligence meet here.

    Point of influence

    The situation picture is public in its main features. Ask your municipal politicians what it says and what is being done.

  3. State

    The agency team strikes at the money

    The police investigate the crimes while the Tax Agency audits, the Enforcement Authority seizes assets and the Social Insurance Agency stops incorrect payments. The aim is to make crime unprofitable.

  4. EU

    Europol ties the threads together

    The narcotics and the money move across borders. Through Europol and joint investigation teams the local network is linked to its suppliers abroad.

  5. Municipality

    Social services open a way out

    The exit support helps those who want to leave: protected housing, a new context, sometimes a new town. At the same time school and leisure work so that no new ones are recruited.

    Point of influence

    The municipal election decides the resources for exit support and prevention. The community associations you can get involved in are part of the protection.

  6. Your everyday life

    A quieter street, a more open block

    Success shows up as absence: fewer open drug scenes, fewer young people recruited. Behind it lie decisions in the Riksdag, the municipal offices and agencies that are seldom seen together.

The journey looks the same in reverse: what has been built came the same way, through the same decisions. Whoever knows where the decisions are made also knows where they can be changed.

Questions to discuss

  1. What does organized crime do to the trust between people where it gets a foothold?

  2. Tougher sentences, choked money flows or fewer young people recruited: where do you think the krona does the most good?

  3. What can an ordinary resident do against organized crime without taking personal risks?

  4. How does your municipality protect its own systems, from association grants to procurement, against being exploited?

  5. What price is reasonable to pay in surveillance and control to get at the networks?

Glossary

Avhopparverksamhet
Society's support to those who want to leave criminal settings, often with the municipality as the hub.
Myndighetsgemensam satsning
The cooperation where the police and a range of control agencies attack organized crime together.
Penningtvätt
Making crime money look legal, often via companies and cash businesses.
Välfärdsbrott
Crimes directed at benefits and allowances from the central government and the municipality.
Europol
The EU's agency for police cooperation, a hub for investigations across borders.

Go further

Footnotes

1) This is an estimate of how decision-making power over the issue is split between the municipality, the region, central government and the EU, based on how responsibility is divided in legislation. A teaching guide, not an exact measurement.