The National Board of Health and Welfare wants to find out why “children shoot and blow up”

Published 10 December 2024 at 11.11

Domestic. The National Board of Health and Welfare warns of children's increasing involvement in serious violence and organized crime. “We need more knowledge about children who shoot and blow up,” states the authority in a press release.

Share the article

TwittraShare

Children are exploited by criminal networks through threats and manipulation, and recruitment is fast.

The National Board of Health and Welfare is therefore planning a study to map risk factors and better understand which support efforts are needed. The purpose of the study is, among other things, to investigate which risk factors, care and social care contacts and legal processes are and have been current for the target group.

General director Björn Eriksson emphasizes the importance of acting earlier:

– That children are involved in serious acts of violence is a serious problem that affects the whole of society, we must get better at acting in time. Therefore, it is important that we constantly develop the knowledge needed for society to be able to catch these children much earlier than we do today, he says.

The collaboration project Bob (Children and young people in organized crime) has shown that more effective cooperation between the police, social services and other actors can strengthen the safety net around vulnerable children. Unit manager Annika Öquist emphasizes the importance of joint efforts and highlights that the knowledge that already exists about risk and protection factors must be used better.

– We see that the Bob structure can contribute to filling several gaps that existed in the work to prevent children from being involved in organized crime. For example, the need for more efficient collaboration around the care chain when children are placed in community care and for health and medical care to be involved as an important actor at regional and local level. The shared knowledge contributes to a stronger safety net around children and young people, says Annika Öquist.

The final report for the Bob mission, which was recently submitted to the government, shows that collaboration has been established nationally. At the same time, it points to the need to include more actors, such as civil society and business, to meet new challenges such as the digital recruitment of children into criminal networks.