Yayha, a former gang criminal who declined to give his last name or show his face, stands in Gothenburg, Sweden June 13, 2024.GOTHENBURG, Sweden — The killer was only 14 and had lived in youth homes as a ward of the authorities since he was eight.
Sweden has long prided itself on one of the world's most generous social safety nets, with a state that looks after vulnerable people at all stages of life. His father had died a couple of years earlier. He had dropped out of school and was convicted of assault and theft, beating up other kids and stealing their phones and clothes.
The wave of violence has come to overshadow all else in Swedish politics, driving the rise of a rightwing coalition with support of the far right, which came to power in 2022, ending the latest eight-year period of rule by the Social Democrats, Sweden's dominant political party since the 1930s. "I think it is clear that in reality the state-run homes have functioned as a kind of recruitment base from the criminal networks," Strommer said. "It's a monumental failure."Sweden's youth homes have varying degrees of security, with around 700 of the most troubled youths housed in 21 homes run by a state body, the National Board of Institutional Care .
Birgitta Dahlberg, head of youth care at the SiS, told Reuters it was unfair to blame the homes for their inability to deal with serious violent offenders, which they were not designed to handle. The youth homes seem to do more harm than good, said Stockholm prosecutor Lisa dos Santos, who has handled numerous cases of youth gang crimes.