From 1 July there is a specific criminal offence of recruiting minors into crime. But Økokrim warns that the police will not receive the tools needed to prosecute them.
Norway has got its own law against the gangs’ child soldiers.
The new provision, § 200 of the Penal Code, entered into force on Wednesday. It targets anyone who involves a minor in criminal acts carrying a penalty of three years or more – or recruits a child to commit such acts.
The penalty is a fine or imprisonment for up to three years. Gross violations are punishable by up to six years under the new § 200 a, among other things when the child is below the criminal age of 15.
The provision also covers anyone who instructs a minor to commit violence, directs a child to deliver weapons, or takes a minor along when a criminal act is committed – for example as part of training.
– It is a serious and growing societal problem that cynical criminals exploit children both above and below the age of criminal responsibility to commit criminal acts. It should not pay to hide behind minors, says Minister of Justice and Public Security Astri Aas-Hansen (Ap) in a press release.
The background is well known from Sweden. There, young people between 15 and 20 constitute the group with the largest increase among those suspected of bombings, according to the Swedish Crime Prevention Council.
Swedish police describe a pattern in which the instigators sit abroad and recruit very young perpetrators digitally – often from small towns completely without gang environments. Norwegian police have documented the same development at home: recruitment takes place on social media and via encrypted messaging channels.
The experts said no
This is where the paradox of the case begins. The government itself appointed a fast-track committee led by former Justice Minister Knut Storberget (Ap) to assess the need for a specific criminal offence. The conclusion was clear: there is no legal gap that the new provision fills.
– On this basis, the expert group concludes that there are not sufficient grounds for introducing a criminal offence that specifically targets the recruitment of children into crime, the report stated.
The Norwegian Bar Association said the same in the consultation round: the rules on complicity in the current Penal Code already cover recruitment cases. The government passed the law anyway, emphasising that punishing the use of minors in gangs was more important.
The police: We are not getting the tools
More serious is the objection from Økokrim, which supported the law – but pointed to a gap that may render it toothless. With a penalty limit of three years, the police do not gain access to communication control or data extraction under the Criminal Procedure Act.
It is precisely these methods that are needed. Økokrim’s own experience is that recruitment takes place in encrypted channels, often controlled by masterminds abroad. The only real investigative tool is to retrieve the communication between the mastermind and the child.
– If one is to envisage success with targeted investigations into child recruitment, it is a significant disadvantage that these methods are unavailable, Økokrim wrote in its consultation response.
In other words, Norway has acquired a provision that signals that the recruitment of children is unacceptable. But the police who are supposed to enforce it must investigate encrypted recruitment channels without permission to read them.