Sweden is getting ready for a dramatic shift in how it handles its youngest criminal offenders: with prison cells. Confronted with a decade-long rise in gang shootings and bombings, many involving minors, the government aims to drop the age of criminal responsibility from 15 to 13 and lock up the youngest serious offenders in new youth prisons, one of them for girls, reports Reuters. Parliament votes on the plan June 15. “We have an emergency,” says Justice Minister Gunnar Strommer. “Last year, 52 children under the age of 15 were involved in legal trials suspected of murder or attempted murder. So we’re not talking about theft, not even assault or robbery. We’re talking about murder.”
The move marks a sharp turn away from Sweden’s longstanding emphasis on social care for young offenders, a system an audit found failed to stop reoffending in most gang-linked youths. Courthouse News Service previously reported that older gang members in Sweden recruit young teens so they can keep their hands clean. At Rosersberg prison north of Stockholm, preparations are already being made to accept young teen prisoners this summer. The emphasis would be on schooling, with prisoners allowed to play video games, watch TV, or go to the gym before cells are locked down at 8pm.
Supporters say incarceration would help sever the teens’ ties to criminal networks that police say now include 17,500 active members. Critics, including some opposition politicians, criminologists, and even law enforcement officials, warn that the shift could backfire with already marginalized youths. The US, meanwhile, doesn’t have a uniform federal standard on the age of criminal responsibility, with the threshold differing among the states.