This study examines how the issue of lowering the age of criminal responsibility is constructed and legitimized in Swedish parliamentary debate. The aim is to analyze how political actors frame youth crime, its causes, and appropriate solutions in relation to ideological perspectives and established research.

The study is based on a qualitative framing analysis of parliamentary debates in the Swedish Riksdag concerning proposals to lower the age of criminal responsibility. The theoretical framework consists primarily of framing theory, complemented by perspectives on symbolic criminal policy.

The results show that competing frames shape the political debate. One dominant frame constructs youth crime as an acute threat to public safety and social order, emphasizing individual responsibility and legitimizing repressive measures such as harsher punishment and a lower age of criminal responsibility. Another frame emphasizes structural and social explanations for youth crime, highlighting prevention, welfare measures, and rehabilitation as more legitimate solutions.

The analysis further demonstrates that criminal policy is shaped not only by research-based knowledge but also by ideological and symbolic considerations related to control, security, and political legitimacy. The study concludes that proposals to lower the age of criminal responsibility may function not only as practical policy measures but also as symbolic expressions of political action and social control.