Sweden Seeks to Cut Age of Criminal Responsibility to 13

The Swedish government, facing an election next year, wants to hold children as young as 13 responsible for serious crimes in its latest push to crack down on violent gangs.

In an editorial published Wednesday, the leaders of Sweden’s governing parties said the number of suspected felonies involving children under 15 — the current minimum age for criminal responsibility — had doubled in a decade. Suspects in life-threatening shootings are also increasingly young, they added.

Sweden has been plagued by gang shootings over past years — a trend that’s helped boost support for the nationalist Sweden Democrats — and ...