Police frustration on young criminals: "No feedback in 99 cases out of 100"

- The police are doing their job. They grab them, then release them again. After 45 minutes they are back after being interrogated, says Mona Jokhaji.

She is a security host in Jakobsberg, in Järfälla municipality outside Stockholm. Mona Jokhaji himself has seen how guys who are only 13 years old sold drugs in the center.

And they are not afraid to get stuck, she explains.

- No, because they know nothing is happening.

The police in Järfälla confirm the image that young offenders, under the age of 18, are usually released after questioning.

- Then we do not seize them, but then we identify them, contact their custodians, inform the social service of what has happened and then they can go home. We may send them home to the parents, or the parents may come and pick them up. That's what happens, says Tobias Becker, preliminary investigator at Järfällapolisen.

What crimes can it be about?

"Common youth crime, it's robbery, abuse, illegal threats," says Tobias Becker.

About a fifth of 15- to 17-year-olds who commit crimes recur in crime within a year, according to the Crime Prevention Council, BRÅ.

Up to the age of 18, special reasons are required for arrest or detention. It is about very serious crimes, for example gross robbery. Persons under the age of 18 who sell drugs or commit crimes that robbery are rarely deprived of liberty.

They are released after questioning, and become the social service's responsibility.

At the same time, police officers such as Assignment Review are critical to the social services often not providing information about what action they are taking, such as whether the youth is forcibly placed for home care or at any institution. It makes control more difficult, they mean.

In the case of "Hassan", as the Assignment Review told us, the police have made several reports of concern to the social service without getting information back, according to preliminary investigator Tobias Becker.

In one of the allegations, the police expressed "great concern" in connection with the arrest of the then 14-year-old Hassan after a car chase for more than 200 kilometers per hour. The police write to the social service that he "needs a lot of support not to continue his criminal trajectory. A support which he seems to lack from both society and guardians ”.

And what happens when this comes to the social service?

- Yeah, we don't know that much. We do not receive any feedback from the social services regarding such things, says Tobias Becker.

In the case of "Hassan", according to Tobias Becker, they did not know he was located anywhere because the social service referred to privacy.

- We do not get feedback in 99 cases out of 100.

But if a youth is suspected of a crime with a penalty value of at least one year in prison, it is permissible for the social service to break the secrecy. The conditions were for instance in Hassan's case.

Social services refer to privacy, and it is not their job to control young people.

- We work to provide support and care and support. The police are responsible for the repressive and controlling, says Martin Lirén, head of social services and leisure in Bromma.

After all, it becomes a problem here when the police do not know where the youth is located somewhere, they do not know if it is LVU in the home or if there is any institution, they do not know when it will cease and when it will start. How do you deal with it?

- Our mission is to support them.