The police are now warning of a trend with younger and younger perpetrators of explosions and shootings. Underage boys are used by the gangs to commit serious crimes. One explanation could be the scrapped sentence discount for offenders between 18 and 21 years of age. A minor today risks a much lower sentence than a person over 18.
In recent weeks, explosions and shootings have followed each other in the Stockholm area.
It is surprising that many of those who have been detained during the current wave of violence, according to the police, are under 18 years of age.
– Previously, we had a general image that you were maybe 20, 25 years old as a perpetrator, now you are somewhere between 14 and 17 years old. This is a development that has come recently where we have to take all kinds of measures to break this, says Max Åkerwall, deputy commander of the police in the Stockholm region.
During the Christmas weekend, two boys aged 14 and 15 are suspected of shooting with automatic weapons at an apartment in Gubbängen in Stockholm. One of several high-profile cases involving minor perpetrators last year.
At the Emporia shopping center in Malmö, a 15-year-old boy is suspected of being behind the shooting death of an older gang leader. And in Stockholm, a 16-year-old is in custody for murder at a gym in Vasastan.
The young age of the perpetrators may be due to the fact that people over the age of 18 now risk harsher punishments than before. Something the gangs are aware of.
The penalty discount for offenders between 18 and 21 was abolished on January 1 last year. Criminal lawyer Viktor Banke feels in his profession that a threshold effect has been created as the difference in punishment for an 18-year-old and a 17-year-old is now large.
According to the Crime Prevention Council and criminologists that TV4 Nyheterna spoke to, it is still too early to say whether it is precisely the scrapped penalty discount that contributed to the development.
In the player above: See more about the police warning.