According to Oljeqvist, resources have been steadily reduced over the past 15 years in the contexts that prevent children from turning to crime, such as sports, school, and social services.
When a concern report comes in about a boy with various types of risk behaviors, there must be funds to allocate resources. Right now, no money is being allocated for that, but instead, money is being allocated to put children in prison, he says to P1 Morning on Swedish Radio.
We are literally sitting and watching the children, waiting for things to go wrong, and then we think that ten years in prison is good enough, continues Oljeqvist.
The development has been known for a long time, according to the CEO of Fryshuset. As early as 2010, the then Police Chief Carin Götblad warned about the violence trend, and when the sentence reduction for young adults was abolished in 2022, politicians knew that criminals would start recruiting children.
