Sweden plans tougher sentences for repeat gang offenders ahead of vote

Sweden's government is moving to make repeat gang offending costlier in court, pushing judges toward the top of the sentence range and longer terms before voters go to the polls in September. The current system can understate repeated offending because punishment is often anchored to the most serious single crime rather than the full pattern of conduct.

The plan would force courts to weigh all committed crimes more explicitly and give less weight to mitigating factors such as loss of employment.

On April 9, the government approved the biggest reform of the criminal-law sentencing system since the penal code was introduced. That package removed the presumption against prison, replaced conditional sentence and probation with a new system of conditional imprisonment, and scrapped the current bulk discount so each offense is counted in full. A year earlier, a government inquiry led by Petra Lundh had proposed tougher penalties for about 50 offenses, including higher minimums and maximums for serious violent and sexual crimes and a rule that could allow sentences to double for gang-related offending.

On April 10, the government will add more than 1,800 prison places across six locations. The planned facility in Trelleborg alone is set to provide 180 remand places and 540 prison places, with opening expected in 2030.

The country's homicide rate has risen over the past decade and is now higher than in many EU countries, mainly because of gun violence. Gun homicides began rising from 2005 and helped drive a broader increase after 2013. Official figures show shootings fell to 147 in 2025 from 390 in 2022, a drop of 63 percent, while fatalities stayed at 43, unchanged from 2024 and down from 62 in 2022. Police put active gang membership at around 17,500, and recruitment remains hard to stop, especially online. Brå is also surveying 15,000 parents in Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö about gang crime.