Sweden’s justice minister Gunnar Strömmer said the government is pressing ahead with plans to allow 13-year-olds to be sentenced to prison for the most serious violent crimes.
The proposal, submitted to the Council on Legislation on January 26, would temporarily lower the age of criminal responsibility from 15 to 13. That would only be for grave offences such as murder, attempted murder, aggravated rape, aggravated arson or bombings, serious acts of public destruction and weapons crimes.
Lesser offences, including theft, common assault and robbery, would remain outside the scope of adult-style prosecution and imprisonment.
Under the draft legislation, the change would take effect from July 2026 and apply for an initial five-year period, expiring in 2031 unless the Swedish parliament voted to extend or make it permanent.
Strömmer described the measure as a response to an “urgent situation” in which criminal networks are increasingly exploiting very young children, who currently cannot be prosecuted as criminals.
Sweden’s Government framed the rise of extreme youth criminality as an emergency situation.
Henrik Vinge, chairman of Sweden’s Justice Committee, said about the issue: “When 13 and 14-year-olds are running around with automatic weapons, society must respond with full force. The aim is both to protect the public and to give these children a chance to leave crime behind before it is too late.”
Official figures show a sharp rise in serious offending linked to children under 15.
In 2025 alone, 52 individuals below that age were involved in murder or attempted murder cases that reached court.
Police and prosecutors have repeatedly warned that gangs recruit youngsters via encrypted apps precisely because they fall below the current threshold and face only social services intervention rather than custodial sentences.
The government plans to create dedicated youth units within the prison system, separate from adult inmates and with younger teenagers kept apart from older ones.
Around 100 to 150 places are envisaged initially, with units for boys and for girls at several different facilities.
The Prison and Probation Service has been instructed to adapt premises and regimes to comply with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Sentences for the youngest group would remain relatively short.
A 13-year-old convicted of murder might face one to two years in a youth prison, while a 14-year-old could receive three to four years, with courts retaining discretion to opt for non-custodial measures such as enhanced social supervision where appropriate.
The proposal also tightens penalties for 15 to 17-year-olds by reducing sentence discounts and raising the maximum term from 14 to 18 years while life imprisonment remains unavailable for sentencing juveniles.
Another change targeting youngsters is extended home arrest.
Strömmer said the reform would also mean social resources are freed for other children.
The plan has drawn sharp criticism.
The Swedish Prison and Probation Service, the Police Authority, the Prosecution Authority and several child-rights organisations have warned that early criminalisation risks entrenching young people in crime rather than diverting them from it.
Critics argue there is little evidence that lowering the prison-age threshold deters offending and some fear it could push gangs to recruit even younger children.
A number of consultation responses described the proposal as poorly evidenced and potentially counterproductive.
Strömmer argued that prevention and social measures remain essential but insisted that “anyone who commits a serious crime must be punished, regardless of age”.
He expressed hope that by 2031, successful prevention efforts would allow Sweden to return to the previous 15-year-old limit.
The draft now awaits review by the Council on Legislation before being presented to parliament.
In Sweden’s escalating gang violence crisis, children as young as 14 have been implicated in carrying out executions and other lethal acts. They are often recruited by criminal networks that exploit their immunity from full adult prosecution under the current age of criminal responsibility rule.
These minors are frequently deployed as disposable operatives for contract killings, shootings and bombings tied to turf wars and score-settling within fragmented drug markets.
Drug-related crime remains the primary driver, fuelling the recruitment pipeline and sustaining the networks’ operations through extortion, arms trafficking and narcotics distribution
Official reports and police assessments indicate that perpetrators and victims in these gang-related incidents are disproportionately of foreign background or from migrant communities.
Sweden’s centre-right government has proposed granting law enforcement the power to wiretap and monitor children under 15, all in the name of fighting gang violence that many feel the State has lost control over. https://t.co/CZ4gjJLoNe
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) May 2, 2025
