The Riksdag voted to lower the age of criminal responsibility to 14 for serious crimes such as murder, aggravated weapons offences and serious public destruction - for example, bombings.
This will strengthen the possibilities to rehabilitate the children and strengthen society's protection against serious crime, said Minister of Justice Gunnar Strömmer (M) in the debate.
The Left Party, the Green Party and the Center Party voted no.
Punishing these children is placing responsibility on the children that society has failed to protect, said Gudrun Nordborg (V).
The government initially wanted to lower the age to 13, but in June changed it to 14 when the first proposal lacked support in the Riksdag.
The Riksdag also decided on Thursday to reduce the penalty discount for young people under 18. This means that the discount will, as a standard, be 80 percent of the penalty an adult would have received. For a 15-year-old, the standard will be a 60 percent discount compared with 80 percent today.
V and MP voted against reducing the penalty discount for minors.
The legal change will come into effect on Sept. 10 this year.
