Children and youth in criminal networks
Network entry, offending, conditions, and network exit. English
translation of report 2023:13
This report presents a study focused on the way children and youth become involved in criminal networks. The study examines the offences that these young people typically engage in and what opportunities they have to leave criminal networks.
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About the publication
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- Other information
- © Brottsförebyggande rådet 2025
- urn:nbn:se:bra-1220
- Report 2023:13
Summary
Children involve other children in drug distribution
The report shows that the process of becoming involved in criminal networks differs from that linked to participation in criminal youth gangs. Such gangs are often comprised of youths of the same age who commit offences together, whereas criminal networks have a hierarchical control structure, are dependent on well-developed contact networks, and have access to illegal goods (drugs and weapons).
The study shows that children are primarily recruited into criminal networks by other children. According to the those interviewed in the study (individuals with experience of participation in criminal networks) the process typically involves an older teenager (aged 15-20) involving a somewhat younger child (aged 12–15). The flow of children and youths into criminal networks occurs within the context of drug distribution systems, in which continuous recruitment constitutes part of the established business model.
In order to progress within the networks, the older teenagers have to recruit younger children as lackeys. By developing a crew of two to five “youngers” of their own, the older teenagers become able to move larger quantities of drugs and thus make more money. This means that the majority of those involved in the lower levels of the network hierarchy engage in recruitment.
The children who are recruited in this way are primarily used to stash, transport, and sell drugs. The reason for using children is that they are cheap and able to do the tasks that involve the highest risk of detection; the use of children also contributes to the network’s expansion and entrenchment in a given neighbourhood.
Criminal networks are formed around age-based hierarchies
The criminal networks that involve children are based on loose ties but are at the same time hierarchically governed. The networks often comprise three or four age-based strata. At the top, there are “the elders”, who direct the activities of individuals who are their own “youngers”. These in turn have their own groups of “youngers”, who in turn also have “youngers”. Network solidarity is based on bottom-up loyalty (towards the “elders”) and harsh top-down control (focused on one’s own crew of youngers).
The longer a network has been established in a given location, the larger the number of age strata that develop. The continuous recruitment process produces new branches lower down the hierarchy, which are based on social relations between individual youngers and elders. Thus, the children who are recruited as youngers cannot be seen as peripheral but are rather an integral part of the network structure. The inflow of new children and youths produces an organic expansion of both the networks and the drug distribution chain.
The networks’ structure means that several strata of elders become financially dependent on industrious children producing income for the network. Exiting the network is therefore often fiercely regulated. Debts, threats, and violence are used to prevent youths from terminating their relations with elders. However, there are occasions when children and youths who have not been given permission to leave the network are able to seize an opportunity to do so when elders are absent for a long period of time (as a result of incarceration, for example).
Direct involvement in serious crime
Children and youth who have been recruited to handle drugs often develop intense relationships with their own “elders”. They are socialised into the network by spending time together on a daily basis, and by being subject to continuous tests and arbitrary rewards. Boys with strong ties to elders are expected to do what they are told, show their loyalty, and carry out their prescribed assignments. The report shows that the youngest children, in addition to their involvement in the drugs market, are also used to stash and transport weapons; engage in extortion, theft, and street robbery; participate in frauds; and carry out acts of serious violence (including shootings). In addition, many of them also continue to commit offences on their own initiative together with same-age peers.
Thus, the move towards participation in serious crime is not gradual but rather occurs immediately upon entry into the criminal network. The report’s presentation of crime statistics for youths aged 15-17 and 18-20, and of the Prosecution Authority’s statistics on youths under 15 suspected of offences1, shows a substantial increase over recent years in the numbers of suspected offences involving weapons, extortion, drug sales and distribution, and fraud that have been linked to suspects under the age of 18.
Older youth groom younger children
One precondition for the involvement of younger children (aged 12-15) in criminal networks is that the “elders” (aged 15-20) are present in the children’s neighbourhood, give the appearance of having a desirable lifestyle, and are accessible to children who wish to approach them. When such contacts are initiated, the first step may be taken by either the elders or the younger children. Even when the contact is initiated by the younger child, entry into the criminal network is preceded by a process that shares many similarities with sexual grooming. Many children are unaware that accepting an “offer” means that they will thereafter be subordinate to an elder and deprived of their autonomy for a long period of time. There are also occasions when coercion in the form of threats, violence, or the establishment of debts is used to involve children and youth in criminal networks.
The interviews conducted in the study show that the networks primarily look for and accept children and youths who are already involved in less serious offending together with same-age peers, who are present, visible, and unmonitored by adults in the area in which the network is active, and/or who have family ties to individuals who are already active within the network. The report shows that the entry process into criminal networks is rapid and produces a marked shift in the individual’s criminal career. On occasion, an entire youth gang may enter a criminal network at the same time.
The National Council’s assessment
The report shows that both children’s and youths’ involvement in criminal networks represents a challenge to the justice system’s work to combat organised crime, and that the victimisation experienced by children in criminal networks constitutes a significant social problem. This means that the issue is one that affects a large number of actors with different areas of responsibility at the national, regional, and local levels. The National Council’s consideration of the study’s findings has been restricted to an assessment of how existing working methods at the interface between crime policy and social policy might be developed on the basis of the report’s findings. The proposals that have been considered relate to opportunities for municipalities and public sector agencies to:
- Reduce the capacity of criminal networks.
- Reduce children’s exposure to victimisation.
Reducing the capacity of criminal networks
The National Council’s view is that legislation, the powers of public sector agencies, and various ongoing initiatives should be reviewed and adapted in order to focus more accurately on the way criminal networks exploit children. Making the exploitation of children in criminal activities less attractive should in turn reduce the capacity of criminal networks.
There may, for example, be reason to consider an extension of the powers used in criminal investigations, where certain measures cannot currently be used, or where their use is restricted, in relation to children aged under 15. It may be necessary to extend the opportunities to use police search powers and the covert interception of communications in relation to children who have not reached the age of criminal responsibility in order to prosecute the older individuals who instigate their offending.
The report shows that it is common among the children and youth who are involved in criminal networks for their contact networks to expand and their exploitation to continue when they are subject to incarceration or out of home placements. The National Council is of the view that restricting access to mobile phones and other forms of communication at youth institutions maintained by the National Board of Institutional Care may be necessary to combat this intensification of criminal involvement, and to make it possible for youths to exit criminal networks.
Reduce children’s exposure to victimisation
The National Council’s study shows a high level of victimisation among children and youth involved in criminal networks. Family members are also at risk of being exposed to threats, violence, and manipulation. The National Council’s assessment is that in order to have a better chance of success, the work of state and municipal agencies to prevent and combat children’s involvement in criminal networks needs, to a greater extent than today, to be: a) evaluated, b) adapted to the relevant target group, c) based on information sharing among different agencies, and d) focused on specific windows of opportunity, when changing circumstances affect the ability of elders to exercise control over youngers.
The National Council is of the view that there may be reason to evaluate some of the measures that are currently recommended in relation to this target group. This may, for example, include FFT (functional family therapy for children and youths aged 11-18 with externalising and criminal behaviour) and MST (multisystemic therapy for children aged 12-17 who commit offences). These measures can be adapted for gang-involved children and youth, among other things via the implementation of FFT-G. Since such methods have to date not been widely implemented in Sweden, there may be reason to examine whether they produce positive effects and can be made available to the children and youths who are involved in criminal networks.
The National Council is also of the view that exit services for children and youth should be offered to a greater extent than at present. The report shows that periods during which elders are absent can lead to generational shifts and conflicts within the networks, but also provide opportunities for leaving the network. When elders are placed on remand, convicted, or placed in out of home care, or when they move to another country, their opportunities for exercising control over youngers are weakened. There may therefore be reason for actors at the local level to develop a readiness to act when such opportunities arise to a greater extent than they do today.
About the study
This report presents a study focused on the way children and youth become involved in criminal networks. The study has been conducted by the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention (Brå) at the instruction of the Swedish government and examines how children and youths enter criminal networks and what motivates the recruitment of these young people. The study also examines the offences that these young people typically engage in, why they commit these offences, how their activities are controlled, how they progress within the network hierarchy, and what opportunities they have to leave criminal networks.
Method and data
The report’s findings are primarily based on interviews with 28 individuals who have themselves been active members of criminal networks in different parts of Sweden. The majority have experience of both entering networks as children and of themselves involving younger children in the networks. The National Council has also compiled and analysed crime statistics, statistics from the Swedish Prosecution Authority, and quantitative intelligence data from the Swedish Police Authority. The study also includes data from criminal investigation files, investigations of offenders conducted in accordance with the Young Offenders (Special Provisions) Act, and interviews with employees of the Police Authority, the social services, residential care homes for children and youth, women’s shelters, and exit service providers.