Norwegian police are dealing with a rash of serious crime and hate crimes, often carried out by young men under the age of 18, or even below the age limit for criminal responsibility set at 15. The state auditor’s office is criticizing what it calls a lack of juvenile crime prevention programs.
State Auditor Karl Eirik Schøtt Pedersen claims the state is letting down youngsters from poor families and others vulnerable to recruitment by organized gangs or criminal networks. The leader of the children’s ombudsman agency agreed, and admitted that Norwegian authorities have been “much too bad” at offering preventative programs for children at risk.
The comments came shortly after three boys under the age of 18 were convicted of stabbing a male couple eating at an outdoor restaurant at Oslo’s upscale Tjuvholmen complex. The court ruled that the boys’ crime was “motivated by the couple’s homosexuality, and that they had shown their affection for each other in a public place.” One of the boys was sentenced to the equivalent of 4-and-a-half years in custody, while the others to two-and-a-half years and two years, also for making hateful statements during the stabbing attacks. They’d also been in trouble before, for violent assault robbery of another teenager last summer.
Police claim such hate crimes are rising, with 1,172 compaints filed last year, 82 more than the year before.
NewsinEnglish.no staff
