Naive question, but what is the cause of youth violance? Or the increase in violance for that demographic?

in Sweden it's segregation and social context. It mostly affects immigrants, mostly children of parents who came here for a better life. They find themselves in poor neighbourhoods, very bad schools, isolated and often discriminated, with no prospects for a "good life". Criminals (adult) know this and push a sort of cool gangsta narrative that some kids find appealing. Kids, mostly adolescents are recruited online, which is why Sweden seems so against encrypted chats, and are commissioned jobs, from selling drugs to executions. This is because kids are mostly impune, and they are easy to convince. Kids being kids, those jobs often end up in a mess.

It's a dire state of affairs. Sweden is currently one of the most (if not the most?) violent country in Europe if you count gun shootings per capita [1]. The police is unprepared, has few legal means and resources. There are also few officers in general [2].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_violence_in_Sweden [2] https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/police-officers-per-1000-...

In large part, in Australia, the perception of increased youth crime is a result of increased attention to and policing of youth crime .. across the board things appear to be getting better in the aggregate:

  The Australian Bureau of Statistics measures youth crime across the country by collecting and aggregating police statistics from every state and territory.

  Its data shows the number of youth offenders are lower for every state and territory compared with 2008-09.

  The same thing can be seen when comparing the number of youth offenders per 100,000 people — the rate has gone down, although there has been a slight uptick in some states and territories since COVID pandemic.

  But some states, like Victoria, have recorded a significant rise in youth crime, with its agencies also highlighting the number of incidents involving young offenders — not just the number of youth offenders.

How Australia's states and territories are grappling with youth crime

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05-31/australian-state-and-...

Also: 'They've always been scapegoats': Behind Australia's crackdown on youth crime

  Are states like Queensland and Victoria really facing a youth crime "crisis"? Here's what criminologists, political experts and Indigenous advocates say.