Sweden to lower age of criminal responsibility as youth violence soars

Stockholm: Sweden s government announced plans Wednesday to reduce the age of criminal responsibility from 15 to 13 to combat the soaring recruitment...

Stockholm: Sweden's government announced plans Wednesday to reduce the age of criminal responsibility from 15 to 13 to combat the soaring recruitment of children to carry out shootings and bombings for organised crime networks.

The Scandinavian country has struggled to contain a surge in the networks' violent crime for more than a decade, linked primarily to score-settling and battles to control the drug market.

"The number of suspected crimes involving children under the age of 15 has doubled in a decade. And the suspects in deadly shootings have become increasingly younger," the coalition right-wing government and its far-right ally the Sweden Democrats wrote in a piece published in the Expressen daily.

"This evolution must be stopped," they said.

Young teens are being recruited on encrypted apps to carry out crimes in exchange for money, so older criminals do not risk getting caught and because they know the youths will not face long prison sentences due to their age.