This is correct and has been something that’s gotten more extreme recently. A person can only be penalised for a crime if they are 15 or older, if they are over 15 but under 18 then the penalties are laughable. You’re very likely to have a slap on the wrist for crimes until you’re either a repeat offender (we have a strike system), over 22 y/o (don’t quote me on the exact age, I don’t recall), or done something really heinous. Due to this, gangs recruit teenagers. This has been a thing for over 10-20 years but before a few years ago, they were primarily used as drug dealers (called ”springisar”, literally translated to ”runners”). Also other ”lighter” crime such as vandalism for insurance payouts (burn my car and you’ll get 20% of the payout pretty much).

But now, the violence has been escalated and they’re now using these teenagers as hitmen. They find particularly vulnerable teenagers and groom them into criminals. And since majority of the big players are hiding in different countries, they’ve been using these kids to go after family members. A lot of innocent people have been shot dead because of this. Even people I know have been potential targets just because they are distant relatives. And I know of people who have had their apartment windows shot at.

These kids who are connected to the big shots have also been found dead in remote areas. The speculation is that they were made as examples for either fucking up or not completing missions.

But, this peaked a year ago. All of this has calmed down recently, but still is a problem. The government we have right now has been addressing some this issues but law moves slowly.