Children and youth in criminal networks

• In Event: Youths’ Involvement in Organized Crime - Panel 1

Abstract

In recent years, the involvement of children and young people in criminal networks has become a serious societal problem in Sweden. This study (Brå 2023) examines how children and youths enter criminal networks and the driving forces behind the recruitments. It is based primarily on interviews with 28 individuals who have themselves been actively involved in criminal networks in different parts of Sweden. The majority of participants has experience of both entering networks as children and of themselves involving younger children in the networks.
One of the main findings is that children are primarily recruited into criminal networks by other children. It is typically an older teenager (aged 15-20) who recruits a younger boy (aged 12–15). The flow of children and youths into criminal networks occurs within the context of drug distribution chains. In order to progress within the networks, the older teenagers have to recruit younger children as lackeys. The study also shows how continuous recruitment of children both constitutes part of an established business model and serves to consolidate a network structure formed around age-based strata.

Authors

• Katharina Tollin, National council for Crime Prevention

• Henrik Angerbrandt, Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention

• Anna Jonsson, The National Council of Crime Prevention