Sweden lowers the age of criminal responsibility to 13 to stop the recruitment of child assassins

BarcelonaCriminal gangs in Sweden have found children and teenagers to be an easy and cheap way to carry out their dirtiest work. In recent years, news reports about shootings, murders, and explosions have largely featured teenagers as the perpetrators. Boys aged 15 or younger killing other young people on commission. The phenomenon has spread to the point that the existence of... child soldiers in SwedenTo try to combat this, the Swedish government has pushed through a legal amendment to lower the age of criminal responsibility to 13, from the current 15, despite widespread opposition, including from organizations such as the police and prison services.

"We have an urgent situation, and the measures we take must reflect this seriousness," argued Justice Minister Grunnar Strömmer at a press conference this week to announce the change. It is expected to come into effect in July. Currently, children under 15 cannot be punished in any way; instead, they are placed in the care of municipal social services. Starting this summer, 13-year-olds who commit serious crimes—such as murder or attempted murder, rape, explosions, and kidnapping—can be sentenced to prison.

If they receive prison sentences, 13- and 14-year-olds will have to be housed in special juvenile units within prisons, and their prison terms will be reduced compared to adults. Currently, this reduction applies to young people between the ages of 15 and 20, but the government wants to change this as well. For 15- to 17-year-olds, the sentence reduction will not be eliminated entirely, but it will be modified so that they serve longer sentences—currently, the maximum is 14 years in prison, which will be increased to 18 years. For 18- to 20-year-olds, the sentence reduction will be completely eliminated.

According to official data, in 2024, 120 minors under the age of 15 were involved in murder investigations. Last year, the number was 52. New technologies allow in criminal networks They can easily contact the boys through apps like Snapchat or Signal, where they are offered large sums of money that, in some cases, they will never see. "Children are recruited, among other things, because they are easier to manipulate and risks can be transferred, in addition to being cheap labor for criminal networks," states a report by the Swedish Crime Prevention Agency (BRå) on juvenile crime. It affirms that, typically, 16-year-olds recruit younger boys, between 12 and 13 years old, to carry out various tasks. "The recruiter needs between two and five younger members as supervisors in order to advance within the networks and earn more money from drug sales," the report points out.

Widespread criticism

The Swedish government—a coalition of conservatives, liberals, and Christian Democrats—has reached an agreement on this change with the far-right Sweden Democrats party, which has been the executive's indispensable crutch this legislative term and has clearly influenced its policies. The government has decided to push through lowering the age of criminal responsibility despite widespread criticism, including from authorities whose opinions were sought, such as the police and the Swedish Tax Agency, which fears the change could lead to even younger children becoming involved in criminal gangs. The Prison and Probation Service (Kriminalvården) also believes that incarcerating such young children could have negative consequences. It warns that prisons are not equipped to handle such young inmates and argues that children who commit crimes should receive rehabilitation rather than punishment. "The younger and more immature the child, the less developed their capacity for responsibility and the greater the negative consequences of punishment," he argues.

The Minister of Justice assured that the government has taken "very seriously" the risks that have alerted the consulted organizations. But he added: "According to our collective assessment, the risks of continuing with the current system are even greater."

Without scientific evidence

Children's rights organizations have also voiced their outrage. "Children should have a special position in the justice system, precisely because they are children and because they haven't reached sufficient maturity to fully understand the consequences," warns Li Melander, a lawyer with UNICEF Sweden. The Swedish NGO Bris has asserted that "there is no scientific evidence that this leads to a reduction in crime." Danish criminologist Britt Østergaard Larsen, who has evaluated the consequences of a similar measure implemented in Denmark in 2010, when the age of criminal responsibility was lowered to 14, concurred in an interview on the SVT network. "When you come into contact with the legal system, you risk being labeled a criminal and coming into contact with other criminals," she emphasized. She added, "Their brains aren't fully developed. They don't have long-term thinking. They are more influenced by their friends than by the fact that they are of legal age." Two years after implementing the amendment to the Penal Code, Denmark reversed course. Studies conducted found no reduction in crime among 14-year-olds and also confirmed that early incarceration increased recidivism. Currently, the lowest age of criminal responsibility in Europe is in Ireland, where it is 12 years old, and 10 years old for certain serious offenses. At the other end of the spectrum are Portugal and Luxembourg, which have the highest age of criminal responsibility at 16, while Spain is in the middle at 14.