In recent Swedish crime policy discussions, a view is taken that harsher sanctions is to be applied against young criminals. For example, the special penal treatment of offenders aged 18–20 years should be abolished and that imprisonment for life would be made possible even for 18 years old offenders. This will most likely have effects also on the category of young offenders aged 15–17, possibly even effecting the view on how persons under the age of 15 is treated in the criminal system.
In Sweden, the social services has the prime responsibility for societal reactions on young offenders. Moving towards a more repressive system, this might be subject to change. Different principles – punishment on the one hand, treatment on the other – collides when the authorities deal with young perpetrators. This can cause problems in the future, for example, when the UNCRC is made Swedish law in 2020.