A small group of Norwegian children and young people are recruited for serious crime and violent assignments via digital platforms.
In parts of the Oslo area and several other locations in Norway, there are serious conflicts between criminal gangs that occasionally escalate. Firearms, knives, and machetes are frequently brandished, and a few young people use them to threaten, harm, and kill. Drugs change hands and are traded, while the ringleaders lurk in the shadows.
Violence breeds violence - and fear
Groruddalen and Oslo are characterized by an increase in serious and brutal violent incidents among the young, even though the total number of police reports among youth fell slightly in 2025. The violence often involves those under 18, and the Alna district is among the areas in the east with the highest priority for the police.
The Haugerud conflict is causing much concern. It is a serious, ongoing conflict between criminal youth environments in Haugerud and Furuset, marked by violent episodes, stabbings, and weapon seizures. The conflict involves increasingly younger individuals, including children under 15. It has led to significant fear in the local community, and the police are investigating the cases with high priority.
Neighborhood police in the Oslo Police District, East Unit, work closely with criminal gangs and networks of Norwegian children and youth operating locally. Territorial conflicts between them are not uncommon, and the fear of spirals of violence is not without reason, emphasizes Olav Verpe, a section leader in the neighborhood police.
… but Oslo is a safe city
Verpe nevertheless maintains that Oslo is a safe city. Most children and young people growing up in Oslo do not commit crimes, but some districts are more troubled than others. In Oslo, the neighborhood police work according to a methodology called "efforts in prioritized areas".
Here, residents report experiencing more insecurity and lower trust in the police than in other areas and the rest of the city.
In addition, several of these areas have visible and active criminal networks and youth environments committing very serious crimes, ranging from major drug offences to violent crimes, shootings, and stabbings.
Heidi Mork Lomell is a professor at the Department of Criminology and Sociology of Law at the University of Oslo. She has studied crime statistics and has a good overview of crime trends in Norway. She confirms that the number of children and young people who commit serious and repeated crime is low, although the figures are serious and the dark figures (unreported crime) are of an unclear size.
The gravity of child recruitment
In 2024, the Ministry of Justice and Public Security appointed an expert group to assess measures for children who commit repeated or serious crime. They delivered the report "They are our children - on keeping a cool head and a warm heart" in March 2025. It emphasises that relatively few children in Norway conflict with the law.
Based on criteria accounting for repetition and severity, the expert group estimated that in 2023, there were approximately 800 children above and below the age of 15 charged with repeated or serious crime. According to figures from Statistics Norway (SSB), 117 of these children were each charged with at least ten offences.
Furthermore, there was a significant increase for children under 15 in the years from 2015 to 2023, not only for minor offences but also for serious crimes such as aggravated violence and robbery.
For the 15 to 17 age group, a similar increase is not seen. According to the report, registered crime has been fairly stable in the period from 2015 to 2023 and remains at a historically low level. However, there has been a small increase in serious violent offences.
Lomell notes, however, that one must be careful when comparing crime trends for those under and over 15 using crime statistics, as crime is registered very differently for these two groups.
Calculations made by SSB show that the figures provide a skewed picture of children under 15 who commit repeated and serious crime.
New figures for Oslo
Annual statistics from the Oslo Police District show that the number of general reports with young suspects fell by five per cent in 2025. Just over three thousand reports with suspects in this age group were registered in 2025.
The latest figures from Oslo also show a 15 per cent decrease in registered violent offences in the youngest age group (10 to 17-year-olds) from 2024 to 2025.
"If we compare the 2025 figures with those from before the pandemic, i.e., 2018-2019, the numbers are still higher. There has been an increase here over the last few decades, but a decrease from 2024 to 2025," says Lomell.
Violence as a commodity
The grenade explosion in Pilestredet in September '25 marks a turning point in Norway. The police link the incident to a targeted criminal settling of scores involving two 13-year-olds and the Swedish Foxtrot network.
This incident is an example of a trend in many countries where criminal environments succeed in influencing children and youth to commit serious crimes.
Violence as a commodity, where young people are recruited via digital platforms to commit acts of violence, is a development the police and partners are monitoring very closely, says Verpe.
In recent years, municipalities, the government, and the police have initiated several new measures to prevent and combat youth crime.
"These figures suggest that cooperation and joint efforts are working," says Police Chief Ida Melbo Øystese on the police website.
"At the same time, we have had several incidents related to violence as a commodity where young people are recruited into crime via encrypted apps. Despite the decrease in reports, the level is still too high. We must continue our targeted work against youth crime," she emphasizes.
They are our children - but who are they?
Upbringing, family background, previous behavioral problems, and family income all play a role in who is recruited into serious crime and violence. Most are boys, and several struggle with substance abuse and problems at school. Domestic abuse is also a risk factor.
According to the Oslo Police District's 2023 report and other studies, immigrant youth are overrepresented. At the same time, Lomell points out that it is not the case that all immigrant groups end up in these statistics.
When asked whether we can expect an escalation of serious youth violence in Oslo East, or whether the police have control, Verpe reflects before answering.
"Whether it will get worse or not is difficult to predict. But this is something the police prioritize. We work actively with uniformed and plain-clothes personnel in areas where insecurity is high."
How do you check if your child is being recruited? Listen to the University Podcast's episode on serious youth crime and violence (only in norwegian).
Sources
De er våre barn - om å holde hodet kaldt og hjertet varmt - regjeringen.no
30 prosent nedgang i ungdomskriminalitet - NRK Rogaland - Lokale nyheter, TV og radio
