Violence

	THE MURDER THAT SHOCKED ÖRNSKÖLDSVIK
	Murder, homicide, disappearance and violence. What is happening in Örnsköldsvik? Can the commune do something about it, and are they doing anything when the Society starts wondering?
	Could you believe that in our little town, Örnsköldsvik, a terrible murder of a girl was comitted. Saturday the 23rd of November 1996 a 16-year-old girl disappeared without leaving any tracks. She was going to a friend by bus, but she never came to the place that they had decided to meet at. It became a very hard time for her parents, friends, relativs and even for the once who didn't know the girl and her parents very well. False rumours were spred very, very quickly in Örnsköldsvik. Six month later, the 22nd of May 1997 she was found almost at the same place as she last was seen. The clothes she had worn when she disappeared became the sign for the police that prooved, .it was the right missing girl. The police was not allowed to say anything about the girl to the newspaper before the closer examination was done. But still, about six month after they found the girls body, remains the question: who took the life of the young 16-year-old girl? Such long time have past since the murder and they still haven't found a suspect, because the police hasn't found enough evidence. It have been very hard, especially for the parents. They have constantly searched for an explanation about where they could find her. Many thoughts about what have happened if her parents had taken her there instead, have crossed their mind. The family have got a big support from everyone, even from the police. Thursday when they found their daughters body, the father said that he'd rather skip that moment, because it was so hard! The parents felt a little bit of hope, after all she could be alive. The person who had murdered the girl is still free so the parents really want the police to find the murder who did it. The empty space of their daughter is never going to disappear but their life is gradually and slowly going on.
	How does the Society works and acts? When they try to solve a murder case or any case at all in Sweden the policemen are very quiet. They don´t give any information at all to the people who live nearby. They just say that they can´t give out any details about the body, how it happened, or who did it. We think it´s wrong not to inform what has happened or what is happening, because it´s very easy that some false rumours are being spred. For example when the girl named Malin was murdered, a rumour did start saying that she was laying in a container with her arms and legs separated from her body, and it wasn´t true. This makes it even worse especially for the parents. It´s not only the family who is affected, the whole town are talking about what has happened. You can hear the same questions everywere, was she murdered? How did it happened?, Who did it?, And were is the murderer?, and I think it´s very important that you should get answers at those questions, so that false rumours won´t be spred. Well I´m going to ask you a question. What is a crime? In Sweden a crime is something you do and get punished for, Perhaps you will be sent to jail, you will get fined, or you can have a probation officer looking after you, so that you won´t commit another crime and so on. Why does someone commit a crime? Perhaps he or she has had a bad childhood. They could have had parents who were alcoholics, or they didn´t care about their child or children. Another reason might be that there are a lot of things that you want to have but can´t afford to buy. For exemple fine clothes, a new car or so on. I think the reason for this is the big unemployment. People only have money so they can survive from one day to another. The court system in Sweden is very strange. A person who has murdered another can be free after only one year of psyciatrice care, and that we find wrong, because we think that if you could take someone else life , you don´t think life is valuable, so that person should have a longer punishment, perhaps you don´t agree, but that´s our opinion.
	Who are the once trying to reduce the violence? The Socialworkers in Örnsköldsvik are the ones who have for a job to lecture in schools about drugs, alcohol, sex and relationships. They are out on Fridaynights and see to that no one does anything stupid and that no one has too much to drink. If they catch the same person several times in a row or if they finds out that a person has trouble at home they have to report it and they are not allowed to talk to anyone about what they know. On daytime they are out on schools lecturing, arranging days with a special theme and also talking to boys or girls with problems. NFG, Non Fighting Generation is a small group of volunteers and they are out on evenings talking to young people about violence, stopping fights and sometimes they give you a lift home. They don't have to report to the Socialworkers if they are noticing that something is going in the wrong direction, but they usually tries to get the person to take contact with the Socialworkers. If a school calls and wants help with arranging a "themeday" they are delighted to come and lecture. Both groups thinks that the longer kids wait trying alcohol, less violence would be the result. More information is what it takes to get young people to realise the seriousness in violence and drugs. NFG are preceding with good example. A person under 18 years old are not allowed to drink alcohol what so ever. If a member do so they get excluded from the organisation.The Socialworkers co-operates with the police, schools and associations. NFG is an idealistic organisation and it takes money to be able to do what they are doing. To get sponsors they talks to different corporations.
	What are the laws telling us about racism? At the time there is five laws against racism in Sweden who has to do with racism. The latest came in July 1994. Here you can read about the five laws and the most important about them. Harder punishment for racistcrime: By that means that crimes who commites with racistic motives shall give harder punishment, but this law is seldom used. Baiting against ethnic group: It is a law who shall prevent threat or disparaging utterance because of race, colour of the skin, faith or origin. The punishment is fine or prison for two years. Unlawful discrimination: A law who only comprehends individuals from a group and not the ethnicgroup. The law counts if a coloured man or a woman has to wait extremly long in a shop. Uniformban: Law who forbidds politic uniforms or clothes and symbols with clearly strains of politic uniform. Unlawful corp: A law who started to count 1934 and forbidds armed force. The law has not been used in modern time but could be used if a Nazigroup armed and trained themselves. There is also others "traditional" crimes who can contain racistic wefts. A few is: maltreatment, unlawful compulsion, insult and damage.


	Written by: Pernilla Nyberg, Eva Byström, AnneLi Eriksson, Frida Strömgren
	Webcreator: Tomas Englund