Reuters
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People gather beside flowers and candles at the site where a 12-year-old girl was shot dead at a motorway service area in Botkyrka, near Stockholm, Sweden August 3, 2020. Stina Stjernkvist/TT News Agency via REUTERS
Sweden has gone from having one of the lowest rates of gun violence in Europe to having one of the highest, a report said on Wednesday, describing what one researcher called a social contagion of killings.
Sweden, with a population of 10 million, saw 42 deadly shootings in 2019, the last year with verified statistics. Preliminary figures for 2020 also showed more than 40 people were shot dead.
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STOCKHOLM Sweden has gone from having one of the lowest rates of gun violence in Europe to having one of the highest, a report said on Wednesday, describing what one researcher called a “social contagion” of killings. Sweden, with a population of 10 million, saw 42 deadly shootings in 2019, the last year with verified statistics. Preliminary figures for 2020 also showed more than 40 people were shot dead.
Of 22 European countries with comparable data that were analyzed in the report from the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention (BRA), only Croatia had more gun deaths per capita over the last four years. No other country had seen as swift an increase as Sweden.
By Syndicated Content
May 26, 2021 | 6:15 AM
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) â Sweden has gone from having one of the lowest rates of gun violence in Europe to having one of the highest, a report said on Wednesday, describing what one researcher called a âsocial contagionâ of killings.
Sweden, with a population of 10 million, saw 42 deadly shootings in 2019, the last year with verified statistics. Preliminary figures for 2020 also showed more than 40 people were shot dead.
Of 22 European countries with comparable data that were analysed in the report from the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention (BRA), only Croatia had more gun deaths per capita over the last four years. No other country had seen as swift an increase as Sweden.
Last modified on Wed 26 May 2021 15.08 EDT
Sweden is the only European country where fatal shootings have risen significantly since 2000, leaping from one of the lowest rates of gun violence on the continent to one of the highest in less than a decade, a report has found.
The report, by the Swedish national council for crime prevention (BRA), said the Scandinavian country had overtaken Italy and eastern European countries primarily because of the violent activities of organised criminal gangs.
âThe rate in Sweden ranks very high in relation to other European countries, at approximately four deaths per million inhabitants per year. The average for Europe is approximately 1.6 deaths per million inhabitants,â it said.