Shadow Children: Serious Development – TV2 Norway

– It makes a very strong impression, says Justice and Emergency Minister Astri Aas-Hansen.

She is aiming for TV 2’s disclosure of youth crime published on Sunday. It reveals that:

• The 20 youths with the most cases in the police records at the turn of the year are listed with a total of 1298 cases. Here they are either charged, suspected or convicted.
• These include murder attempts, drug offenses and serious robberies.
• The youths are on average 15.95 years. The youngest is 13 years old, and has already managed to incur 41 cases in the police register.

– It is a very serious development that we have seen since 2015; They are getting younger, there will be more serious crime and repeated crime, says Aas-Hansen.

She emphasizes that the vast majority of our young people are law -abiding.

– The gangs we have are few, but perform serious crime. It is very worrying, and that is also why it has a very high priority here in the Ministry of Justice, and also in the government, says Aas-Hansen.

Fighting youth crime is now on her “top three list” as Justice Minister.

Creating new service

In many of the cases of the most active youth criminals, the victims are themselves children. Several episodes of violence are filmed by the perpetrators themselves.

-As a previous judge, I know what a huge additional burden it is for the children and young people who are exposed to it, says Aas-Hansen.

Recently, the government set aside 2.5 million to create a new service that can assist children and young people in deleting videos that are spread illegally on the Internet.

– have been obtained freely

Høyre’s prime ministerial candidate also believes TV 2’s findings are outrageous and make a strong impression.

-It is genuinely painful to see how individuals have been freely ravaged, and expose other children to this type of traumatizing and terrible actions, says Right-wing leader Erna Solberg.

– should be safe

Last Sunday, TV 2 was able to tell about two of the boys on the list, which together are registered with 90 cases.

They had both been banned from residence that was broken. Stay prohibitions are when the police say it is forbidden for a person to stay in a special place.

-We should not have it in Norway, says the Right leader, and elaborates:

– It should be safe for children and young people in Norway to move around the local community, regardless of what clothes they wear, or whether they wear a phone, airpods or other valuables.

She calls for action from the government.

-The government talks a lot about these things, but they do very little, says the Right leader.

Stay prohibition with foot link

Solberg believes it must be easier to impose a stay ban and with stricter frameworks.

“When people are expelled, the police must have the opportunity to control this with the help of foot links,” she says.

Today, the police can ban a stay for young people for up to six months. If the stay ban is combined with a visitor ban, they can also put foot links on the youth.

Making this even easier is not at the top of the priority list of the Minister of Justice.

– The police have this today. Then the question is whether there are ways to do this more smoothly or whether one can have better control. We are happy to look at that, says Aas-Hansen.

Tells about vacuum

The police who work on the prevention of youth crime in Oslo believe there is a vacuum between the child in a child welfare institution and a prison place.

-We see that it causes some young people to commit new and serious crime during that period, says Jane Bechmann Dahl, who is the head of preventive in the Oslo police.

Aas-Hansen hopes a fresh measure can help the police.

-We are now allocating money to one-to-one follow-up of youth who commit repeated crime. It has an effect, says Aas-Hansen.