Danish criminologist David Sausdal has criticized Sweden’s decision to send 14-year-olds who commit serious crime to prison. He argues the change ignores the underlying causes of youth crime.
Sausdal is a lecturer at Lund University in Skåne and holds a PhD in criminology from Stockholm University. In an interview published August 13, DR reports that he sees the decision to lower the age of criminal responsibility from 15 to 14 as evidence that something has gone badly wrong.
Swedish lawmakers have voted through the change, which DR reported earlier was framed by politicians as a historic course correction in the fight against gang crime. Sweden’s center-right government says the aim is to respond better to the rising number of children and young people committing serious offenses.
Per DR, Justice Minister Gunnar Strömmer has said authorities today neither protect society from life-threatening violence nor help children break destructive patterns. Sausdal counters that imprisoning 14-year-olds simply moves responsibility elsewhere.
According to Sausdal, several structural factors make some children in Sweden more exposed to crime than children elsewhere in the Nordic region. He points to higher child poverty than in Denmark, and says the problem is worse in vulnerable housing areas.
He also notes that immigration to Sweden has been far larger than to Denmark in recent decades. As stated by Sausdal, there is a greater overrepresentation of ethnic minorities in Swedish crime statistics.
Gang numbers and welfare criticism
Gangs and criminal networks in Sweden have grown very large, according to DR. Figures from the Swedish police, published in November 2025, put the number of active gang criminals at around 17,500, with about 50,000 people linked to criminal gangs.
Sausdal says the political focus is on symptoms rather than root causes. In his view, the wider Swedish welfare state is failing children who are heading toward crime, because much of it has been deregulated, privatized and outsourced.
That change, he says, covers schools, the labor market and the housing market, as well as preventive work meant to make integration succeed. He compares the Swedish approach to immigration and integration in recent years to a more laissez-faire model, which he links to the emergence of parallel societies.
Sausdal also describes a strong entrepreneurial culture among young Swedes, including ambitions to become influencers or business owners. The desire for fast money, he says, can push young people toward gang environments.
As noted by Sausdal, some minors start with small tasks and end up as what he calls child soldiers. He cites sums of up to 500,000 kroner for traveling to Copenhagen with a gun.
He says he wants a better public debate about those underlying causes. Sausdal adds that if the same situation arose in Denmark, he would expect adults to ask who is taking responsibility.
