Amir Rostami: “Violence breeds violence, and violence seems to be getting more brutal”

“Unfortunately, our study suggests a brutalisation of violence. Intending to kill, people aim for the head when shooting and stabbing and they are indifferent to the consequences. And victims who accidentally survive are very injured when they get to hospital,” says Amir Rostami, docent in criminology at University of Gävle.

Together with researchers from several Swedish universities, Amir Rostami has in a unique study for the first time studied patients admitted to Sweden’s trauma units with very severe injuries. They used data from the national trauma registry Swetrau, which includes all patients who have experienced a traumatic event and where a trauma alarm was triggered at the hospital.

“This study builds on a collaboration with researchers from other disciplines and universities and is in line with our strategic research work. As we in this study aim to include other aspects of violence, such as its consequences for the health care system, our data will be analysed further.”

In 2019, Sweden had 50 hospitals with trauma capacity (access to emergency surgery, anaesthesia, and X-ray), 92% of which reported to Swetrau.

Due to changes in registration during the years studied, the researchers chose to look at two time periods, 2013-2015 and 2016-2018, and analyse the development of gunshot and knife injuries. There were 145 knife injuries in the first period and 184 in the second, while gunshot injuries went up from 92 to 141, an increase of over 50 percent.

An escalation that risks fuelling the spiral of revenge

Amir Rostami believes that is very valuable that researchers from different disciplines and universities work together in this way to understand this complex field.

“Unfortunately, our study suggests a brutalisation of violence. Intending to kill, people aim for the head when shooting and stabbing and they are indifferent to the consequences. And victims who accidentally survive are very injured when they get to hospital,” Amir Rostami says.

This brutalisation of violence may contribute to an escalation that risks fuelling the spiral of revenge.

“Violence breeds violence. It sounds like a cliché, but it is a reality in the environment of the gangs. One violent incident leads to another violent incident, which in turn leads to another, and then the cycle of violence is a fact. Those who do not retaliate risk losing status, while brutalisation reduces the scope for mediation. This situation creates major challenges for our society,” Amir Rostami says.