On Friday, the Swedish government announced its military would assist police with combatting the gang violence that has erupted across the country and caused the deaths of 12 people in September alone. But that may not be enough to halt a growing problem.

Shootings have become an almost daily occurrence in Sweden – some carried out by teenagers – with most of the violence blamed on gangs. Swedish law currently prohibits the military helping the police in any situation where the use of force could be necessary except in the case of terrorist attacks or war. 

But after holding a meeting with the heads of the police and armed forces, Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said the two would now have an official mandate to explore ways to cooperate. He said: "The wave of violence is... unprecedented in Sweden, but it is also unprecedented in Europe, no other country has a situation like the one we have," he told a news conference.

The police estimate that about 30,000 people in Sweden are directly involved with or have ties to gang crime. The violence has also spread from major urban areas to smaller towns where violent crime was previously a rare occurrence.

The input of the military may be enough to end this current wave of violence, but Professor Henrik Tham, a Criminologist and Lecturer at Stockholm University, says Swedish society must undo more complex issues to solve the problem in the long term.

"There was a sharp increase from 10 to 40 murders per year from 10 years ago, and then it escalated last year to 60," Tham told CGTN Europe. He added: "Conflicts usually emanate from the illegal drug market and these drugs put young people into the drug market because it's easy to just give them a small amount of money to run errands."

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Some commentators in Sweden have blamed immigration for the rising violence. In August, Sweden's Migration Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard said 100,000 people may be staying illegally in Sweden today. That figure hasn't been confirmed and Tham says the problem is more complex.

"A large number of immigrants have arrived in Sweden but we didn't look to integration when it comes to housing and the concentration of refugees," he says. "Rather than spending billions on the prison system, the money should go to social services to rework the drug policy."

Gang violence isn't exclusive to Sweden. In the UK, fatal stabbings have become common in urban areas, while last year Germany announced plans to clamp down on family-run gang crime, which has caused criminal damage topping $1 billion a year.

Tham believes authorities should undertake research to compare the structures and cultures of gangs in different countries to gain a better understanding into the underlying causes of recurring violence between rival groups.

"We need comparative research and try to figure this out," he said. "Right now, it might be that it is not a structural issue. It could be that when this drug or this gang war started, it developed a dynamic of its own and revenge is routinely sought."

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