Ilona Bērziņa, BNN
Latvia’s Ministry of Welfare decided to establish a “therapeutic school for risk youngsters” in place of last year’s liquidated Social Correctional Education Facility Naukšēni.
This correctional facility will receive teenagers that are “opposed to re-education”. There will be a work group meeting, budget calculation and generation of an avalanche of paperwork to make this happen. But let’s be honest – Latvia needed this kind of facility yesterday – because the growing tendency of teenage crime and violence is a frightening thing, but there are no ways to seriously limit it.
Indomitable statistics
Twenty years ago Latvia was shaken by an internet video in which three youngsters were burning a pigeon alive in a cage they put in a fireplace. All three were later given suspended sentences in the end. Society hoped it would serve as a lesson to others. It didn’t. Among the crimes committed by teenagers in Latvia over the years are thefts, beatings of other teenagers and even murder.
I don’t want to generalise and say all Latvian teenagers are like that. Most of them are wonderful young people. However, according to the report from the State Police for 2022,
teenage perpetrators have 570 crime to their names, which is by 26 more when compared with the year prior.
360 of those crimes were committed against property, 97 involved various narcotic substances, 50 were committed against other people, and 47 – were sex-related. 49 crimes were classified as especially severe and 150 as severe.
A total of 33 821 crimes were committed in Latvia last year. One of every 59 of them were committed by teenagers.
“Young and stupid” or the age and crime curve
If we trust one of the grandfathers of statistical science, Belgian statistician Adolphe Quetelet, who presented the age and crime curve in 1831, teenagers and youngsters, when compared with other age groups, commit crimes more often.
According to him, this is because of teenagers’ desire to test the borders by breaking social norms and order. The recidivist study performed by the State Probation Service (VPD) a couple of years ago proved another correlation – the risk of new crimes being committed in the teenage group is higher.
Unfortunately, law enforcement institutions only take serious notice of teenage crimes only if they commit a truly awful crime or after a wave of shock from residents in response to those crimes. This happened after the attack by a teenagers on other teenagers in Imanta, as well as the invitation from the “heroes” to “smash everyone who isn’t from Imanta” they posted on social networks. [A citation: “In Origo children should be just killed – they’re simply meat”].
It’s scary to imagine what kind of criminal group these street fights could create if police don’t put an end to them. Because the youngsters spending time at the Central Railway Station and Origo Shopping Mall are no sheep. According to State Police, this year alone police apprehended several teen gangs for kidnappings of children and older people.
There is a problem, but no guilty party
The cause of violence among teenagers, the role of family and society in the creation of a person’s personality is a topic deserving a separate article. At the start of the pandemic (2020) Finnish police reported the biggest cause of teen crime was marginalisation and lack of equality. In simple terms – youngsters feel left out and made unimportant.
The British government reported in 2004, referencing a study of the costs of teenage crime, that it is possible to same more than GBP 100 million if measures are taken to step in an intervene in the lives of at least 10% of teenage criminals.
There really is no reason to remind about a relatively old study, but the symptoms of “state health problems” are unsettling and very close to the problems in Latvia. This is specially true for the negligent attitude of responsible institutions to teenage violence and their unwillingness to step in even when the beating and mockery of victims is filmed and put on the internet.
Could a therapeutic risk school help?
Institutions like Naukšēni correctional facilities don’t work – this much is proven by the initiative to add amendments to the Criminal Procedure Law to stop putting teenagers in social correctional education facilities as a form of security measures. There are also changes suggested to penalties for teenagers that commit criminal acts. Prison sentence is applied only in very severe cases. In all other cases the probation service works with the teenager.
The main objective of such changes is making sure teenagers do not return to a life of crime. If the therapeutic risk school does help youngsters, then its all good. But what will authorities do if it turns out this is not enough? There are many such questions. Let’s hope there will be answers.
Also read: Study: anger and contempt on a significant rise among Latvian residents
BNN IN FOCUS | teenage crime is no myth, it’s a harsh reality
