The age of criminal responsibility in Sweden is fifteen. Offenders under age twenty are dealt with in regular criminal courts. Some special policies apply to young defendants, including waivers of prosecution, restrictions on prison sentences, and handing over offenders to the local social welfare committee. Social welfare committees are responsible for offenders under age fifteen. Compulsory reformatory treatment can be used with permission from the country administrative board. The welfare committee has jurisdiction over nonoffending problem behaviors between ages fifteen and twenty, and over offenders of those ages referred to it by the court. Fifteen is the age of responsibility, and social welfare committees aim to save underage offenders from harmful prison experiences. The youth justice system has largely succeeded in keeping juveniles out of court and practically all out of prison. Delinquency increased in the thirty-year period beginning in the mid-1950s. This increase, and later increases in violence, result from factors outside the youth justice system. Since 1990, rates have declined or stabilized.