Around 15 percent of the country’s gang criminals are young people under the age of 18, Swedish Radio reports.
The highest proportion of minors is in the Central Police Region.
There, the number of gang criminals under 15 has increased from 109 to 180 people in one year.
The number of children and teenagers joining criminal gangs has increased dramatically in recent years.
In a survey conducted by the police last year, 8,233 people in Sweden were identified as gang criminals. 1,202 of these were stated to be young people under 18 years of age.
This corresponds to almost 15 percent of the network criminals, reports Swedens radio. Polisregion Mitt, which consists of Uppsala, Gävleborg and Västmanland counties, has the highest proportion of minors in criminal networks.
Dramatic increase
Weekly data from the Police Region Mitt now show that the proportion of young gang criminals has increased significantly.
The number of cybercriminals under the age of 15 has gone from 109 to 180 people in one year, which corresponds to an increase of 14 percent.
– It is a hair-raising high number. It shows that we must take this situation very seriously, says Jale Poljarevius, intelligence chief at Police Region Central.
According to the police region’s new calculations, the total number of gang criminals has increased by 32 percent since last year. From just over 1,000 to over 1,300 people. This corresponds to 320 new recruitments.
“More action required”
Jale Poljarevius believes that the police need to do several things to stop the recruitment of young gang criminals.
According to Poljarevius, these are both preventive and reactive measures.
– The role of the police is to map, identify, analyze and disseminate knowledge. We need to get more area police and have a good collaboration with other authorities, such as the social services and the school, he explains.
– We need to stop recruitment and get more people to drop out at the same time as we need to lock in serious criminals, he continues.
Different patterns in the regions
Most cybercriminals are found in the Stockholm police region. The proportion of minor gang criminals in Stockholm is at about the same level as in the rest of the country. That is around 15 percent.
Martin Wallin leads the police’s work against serious organized crime in the local police area Sollentuna in Stockholm.
– Nowadays, it is not uncommon for teenagers to control criminal gangs and exploit younger children for advanced crime, he says to Swedish Radio.
However, this is not a pattern that is recognizable in the police region Mitt.
– I would say that it is very unusual in our region, says Jale Poljarevius.