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Children under the age of nine are caught by criminal gangs in Sweden and have to pay large sums of money to leave them, a new study shows.
The TT news agency has asked the social services of all the country’s municipalities to describe how young children are recruited into criminal gangs. The responses they have received show that children under the age of nine are recruited and that social services are fighting to get the children to break away from gangs.
One reason for this is that criminal gangs require children to pay large sums of money to break up with gangs. The problem is increasing in several municipalities.
– It’s about children, and that’s what’s disturbing. Youth have always been in crime, but it is escalating as gang violence escalates. It’s very disturbing, says Monika Boström, leader of the social services group in Örebro.
TT has received responses from 62 percent of municipalities. 14 percent of them respond that they fight with children under 18 who are in criminal gangs. Several municipalities that previously did not fight against child crime, report that the situation has changed.
This applies not only in large cities, but also social services in, for example, Motala, Skövde, Uddevalla, Karlstad and Borlänge report similar problems.
– We have not previously had gender problems among the youngest. But now we see that a group has arrived in our municipality that we are very concerned about, says Thereze Lundborg, head of unit in Kalmar municipality.
– Nobody dares to silence the gang, some are so young that they go to sixth grade, he says.
(© NTB)
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