Sweden drops plan to imprison 13-year-olds, will propose age 14 instead after parliament pushback

The reversal

Sweden's centre-right government on Thursday abandoned its plan to allow the imprisonment of children as young as 13 for serious crimes. Justice Minister Gunnar Strömmer told reporters and Swedish public radio that the bill, introduced in January, lacked the votes needed to pass the Riksdag. The government will instead submit a revised proposal in the coming weeks to lower the age of criminal responsibility from the current 15 to 14.

We are going to propose that the age of criminal responsibility should be cut to 14 instead of 13 years old.

The original bill was scheduled for a parliamentary vote on 15 June. Strömmer said he now expects a law setting the limit at 14 to be adopted before August. The minority government, in power since 2022 and backed by the far-right Sweden Democrats, has made the fight against organised crime its signature policy priority.

Gang violence and child recruits

Sweden has been grappling with a surge in gang-related violence for more than a decade, with its annual number of shootings now among the highest in Europe. Criminal networks have increasingly exploited the current legal threshold by recruiting children under 15 to carry out murders, bombings, and other serious offences, knowing they cannot be prosecuted.

More than 50 children under 15 faced court last year suspected of murder or attempted murder.

Under the existing system, convicted minors are sent to youth homes rather than prisons. That system is widely regarded as having failed, with critics noting that youth homes have become recruitment grounds where gang members mix with children who have committed far less serious infractions.

The original proposal and its critics

The withdrawn bill would have allowed 13- and 14-year-olds to be sentenced to prison for the most serious crimes, including murder, attempted murder, bomb attacks, and rape. It also sought to raise maximum sentences for minors, abolish sentence reductions for 15- to 18-year-olds, and treat 17-year-olds as adults in court.

The plan drew sharp opposition. Of the 126 authorities and organisations consulted by the government, a majority expressed criticism or outright rejection, including the police, the prison and probation service, and UNICEF. The prison service had formally advised against the proposal in a submission last year. Police and prosecutors warned that lowering the age could push gangs to recruit even younger children, aged 11 or 12. The children's rights organisation Bris also opposed the measure.

Things are a little uncertain in parliament, and that is why we have decided to act responsibly in this situation, withdrawing the bill this morning.

The path to 14

The government had initially received a recommendation from an appointed commissioner to lower the age to 14 for serious crimes only, but chose to go further and propose 13. The opposition Social Democratic Workers' Party (SAP) had previously advocated for a reduction to 14, and the newspaper Expressen reported that the minority government can count on SAP support for the revised threshold. Opposition figures described the withdrawal of the bill ahead of the vote as a political defeat for the government.

The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child recommends 14 as the minimum age of criminal responsibility, which is also the average across the European Union.