The violence must stop: Authorities’ experiences of communicating anti-violence messages to violent groups in Malmö, Sweden

Following a period of increased gun violence in Malmö, Sweden, law enforcement authorities and social service agencies, together with representatives from the local community, initiated a project called Ceasefire Malmö with the aim of stopping severe violence in the city. Ceasefire Malmö is based on a focused deterrence strategy known as Group Violence Intervention (GVI), with the primary goal of reducing gun violence. A core component in GVI is strategic communication with offenders where authorities communicate a clear anti-violence message to groups that violence must stop or be met with swift and severe consequences for the entire group. This article examines the main communication tool employed in GVI: the call-in meeting. Based on 54 interviews with 22 professionals representing all the authorities responsible for organising and implementing call-ins, we analyse how the strategy was adapted to the Swedish context and how authorities experienced communicating with offenders. Our findings show that working with strategic communication enabled the development of new ways to identify and reach out to potentially violent groups. Ceasefire Malmö also encountered several difficult and time-consuming challenges related to call-ins, for example, identifying and engaging community representatives.