In the wake of the fact that ever younger children end up in gang criminals and are used to commit serious crimes, the government and SD have flagged for a reduction in the penal age and on Tuesday a new investigation is presented.
Denmark, which was often regarded as a pioneering country in terms of law enforcement, lowered the penalty age to 14 in 2010. For just two years later, in connection with a change of power in the country, adjust the border back to 15 years.
The then social democratically controlled government believed that the change in the law had no intended effect and that children should not be treated as criminals.
Crime increased
Britt Østergaard Larsen, criminologist at Vive, Denmark’s National Research and Analysis Center for Welfare, together with colleagues at Aarhus University has evaluated the consequences of the Danish reduction in criminal age.
She believes that they could not notice any deterrent effects of the reduction, either at an individual or general level among the country’s 14-year-olds.
– Their brains are not fully developed. They have no long -term thinking. When a situation arises, they are more influenced by friends than the knowledge that they are criminal, says Britt Østergaard Larsen.
She also notes that the reduction of the criminal justice age as law enforcement funds was even counterproductive when it turned out that youth crime did not decrease but increased during the period with reduced penalties.
IN Agenda On January 26 (SVT 2 21:15), Justice Minister Gunnar Strömmer (M) and the Center Party’s legal political spokesman Ulrika Liljeberg (C) debate the subject.