"There are both private profiles and closed groups, but also accounts where content is posted openly, meaning anyone might encounter it in their feed," says Line Ruud Vollebæk.
She is a special advisor at RVTS East and has extensive experience with youth involved in crime. RVTS East is a resource centre that works to prevent violence, traumatic stress, and suicide.
Vollebæk explains that recruitment often starts on completely open platforms, where the content typically highlights luxury and the promise of quick money.
Line Ruud Vollebæk from RVTS East has extensive experience in outreach social work and follow-up work with young people and adults.(Photo: RVTS East)
"It might be music videos or short clips where people pose with money and weapons or talk about 'missions' and opportunities to earn money quickly. The message is often that this is both accessible and attractive," she says.
If someone shows interest, the conversation is then taken further, she explains.
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"The contact is quickly moved to encrypted apps, where more specific discussions and any agreements take place," says Vollebæk.
Not all recruitment happens digitally
While social media plays a role, Sveinung Sandberg, a professor at the University of Oslo's Department of Criminology and Sociology of Law, says that not all recruitment happens digitally.
"The idea that recruitment mainly takes place through social media doesn't fully reflect how criminal networks and environments actually operate," he tells Science Norway.
He notes that reaching out to complete strangers online carries more risk and involves less trust.
"That's why traditional, close-knit networks – friends, acquaintances, and people within the same circles – still plays the biggest role," says Sandberg.
Organised crime is one of Paul Larsson's areas of expertise at the Norwegian Police University College.(Photo: Norwegian Police University College)
Disposable
According to Paul Larsson from the Norwegian Police University College, criminal groups often target vulnerable youth to carry out risky tasks for them – without ever making them part of the core organisation.
"A group like Foxtrot has a fairly solid core, while many of the young people used for assignments never become part of it. They are more or less treated as disposable," he tells Science Norway.
This is often referred to as crime as a service or violence as a service.
Larsson notes that this is not entirely new.
"Organised crime has always used outsiders for various tasks – everything from debt collection to money laundering or transport. What's different today is that the internet makes it easier to reach more people," he says.
A self-fulfilling prophecy
Larsson says many of the young people who are recruited come from difficult backgrounds, often marked by difficult childhoods, a lack of stable adult figures, and other challenges.
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In that context, criminal environments can seem appealing.
"Foxtrot, for instance, has been effective at creating a strong image – centred on luxury, money, expensive watches, and rap music tied to a gangster lifestyle. For a teenager, that can look far better than feeling like a failure at school," says Larsson. "If you had grown up under similar conditions, you might not have made very different choices."
Sveinung Sanberg is co-author of the book Street Capital, which addresses topics such as drugs, crime, marginalisation, ethnicity, and integration.(Photo: University of Oslo)
Sandberg from the University of Oslo explains that the motivation can be understood through the concepts of push and pull factors.
Push factors refer to what researchers call vulnerability factors among young people.
"This can include social exclusion, poverty, violence at home, or parents with substance abuse problems," says Sandberg.
Pull factors, on the other hand, relate to excitement, quick money, and influences from popular culture such as gangster films and music.
"For some, it's also about wanting to resemble the characters they see in films or on social media," he says.
He points out that boys have always made up the majority of those recruited into criminal networks.
"Part of the explanation may be biological, such as the role of testosterone in increasing aggression and risk-taking. But social expectations around masculinity also play a significant role," he says.
Sandberg mentions expectations such as testing boundaries, the ability to defend oneself, and opposing authority.
"Social expectations can reinforce the biological tendencies and create a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy where boys follow the paths we expect," he says.
According to Larsson from the Norwegian Police University College, some people draw a direct line from developments in Sweden to Norway. He believes we should be cautious about that.
"The situations in Sweden and Norway are hard to compare," he says. "Criminal environments do not spread like a franchise, the way chains like McDonald's or H&M do. Activity is rooted at the street level and driven by local groups. Drug markets are usually the foundation for much of the activity."
That said, this does not mean that there are no links between environments in Sweden and Norway.
"There always have been, for example through drug trade or other services. But that is very different from criminal groups actually setting up operations in Norway," explains Larsson.
