Sweden Abandoned Lowering the Age of Criminal Responsibility to 13 Years
The Swedish government withdrew the proposal to lower the age of criminal responsibility from 15 to 13 years due to insufficient support in parliament. This was reported by SVT.
Sweden's Minister of Justice Gunnar Strömmer stated that the government does not see enough votes to pass the bill, so it decided to prepare a new legislative initiative.
The government's new proposal
According to the minister, instead of lowering the age of criminal responsibility to 13 years, the government will propose setting it at 14 years.
"We propose lowering the age of criminal responsibility to 14 years instead of 13. Here we see good chances of even gaining a majority, and I believe this is a responsible way to address the issue," Strömmer said.
The Swedish parliament was to consider the government proposal to lower the age of criminal responsibility for serious crimes from 15 to 13 years. It was expected that if adopted, the changes would come into effect as early as August.
However, as the minister noted, the government concluded that the bill would not receive the necessary support in the Riksdag.
According to SVT, opposition forces planned to support a joint reservation calling to reject the government initiative during the vote.
When new changes may be adopted
The government intends to return to the issue soon and submit a new bill proposing to lower the age of criminal responsibility to 14 years.
It is planned to be considered this summer. It is expected that if adopted, the new norms will come into effect about a month later than previously planned.
Gunnar Strömmer emphasized that maintaining the current age of criminal responsibility at 15 years would be an undesirable outcome for the government.
He also noted that the voting result on the previous proposal would have been unpredictable due to the presence of deputies who had doubts about supporting the bill. According to him, under such conditions, the vote could have turned into a "lottery."
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