Swedish Minister for Justice Gunnar Strommer speaks to the media prior to the European Justice and Home Affairs ministers meeting in Brussels, Belgium, 09 December 2025. Ministers are expected to exchange views on the fight against impunity regarding crimes committed in Ukraine, particularly the cooperation of EU member states with the planned Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine as well as the support to the international criminal court. EPA/OLIVIER HOSLET Justice Minister Gunnar Strommer said there was not enough support in parliament for the measure and that the government instead would introduce new legislation that will set a lower limit of 14-years-old.
“We are going to propose that the age of criminal responsibility should be cut to 14 instead of 13-years-old,” Strommer told reporters.
Sweden has seen a surge in gang crime over the last twenty years with the number of shootings now among the highest in Europe.
The government has overhauled the criminal justice system, giving the police more power and introducing tougher sentences, but has struggled stop gangs recruiting ever younger children to carry out violent crimes.
More than 50 children under 15 faced court last year suspected of murder or attempted murder, Strommer said.
Until now, children who commit violent crimes have been put into youth homes, but that system is widely seen as having failed.
The government had planned to lock up children as young as 13 in special prison units.
The U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child recommends that the age of criminal responsibility should be 14 at the lowest, which is the average across the European Union.
(Reporting by Simon Johnson, editing by Terje Solsvik)