Debate post This is a debate entry, written by an external contributor. The post expresses the writer’s views.
About youth gangs, about drugs, about robberies and fights. When it is written about children who drop out of school, about bullying and outsiders. Everything is connected in a way. Crime does not occur in a vacuum. No one wakes up one day and thinks: today I will become a criminal!
It starts somewhere.
Sandefjord is one of the municipalities in Norway with the largest difference between rich and poor. We have both some strong taxpayers and we have a large proportion of residents who depend on help from NAV. One of the things that creates the greatest conflict in the world is the scarcity of goods. Big differences between people create a sense of injustice, an experience of us and them. An obvious source of conflict.
Poverty is oppressive, the constant worry about money is crippling to the person concerned. I am lucky enough to be both a childcare educator and an author. For 17 years I have worked with vulnerable children and families. For the past year I have been traveling around talking about my books. Books that largely show a reality that few of us see. Among other things, a story about how you have to be extra resourceful to be poor, and that for many it is a paradox.
It became particularly clear to me after meeting all the seventh graders in Tønsberg this spring. We talked about the character Emil in one of my books. A boy who has no money, who loses his mate, who is ashamed and makes bad choices as a consequence of the lack of money. I asked the seventh graders what they can do together that is free. It was a question to wake them up, to make them think about and include the other students around them. Approximately 10% of all children in Norway experience poverty, which means that several of the children I have spoken to are like Emil in the story.
And what did they answer to the question of what you can do that is free? Almost exclusively the same answer in all classes: Hanging out, talking, playing football, hanging out in town.
Poverty does not just mean a lack of money. It can also mean parents who are anxious and stressed, it can mean a lack of things and clothes that the others have, it can mean cramped apartments and sharing rooms with several siblings, it can mean little food, no leisure activities. And that might mean there’s nowhere to hang. You can’t invite your friends over, you can’t offer them anything, your gaming equipment is out of date, there’s nowhere to be.
So therefore the only free activity is to hang out. At Mcdonalds, in the park, at the shopping centre, outside the school, in the forest behind the hall.
(Which in itself gives an extra good reason to invest heavily in our youth clubs.)
During the day there is school, where you get the opportunity to compare yourself with the others. There, some have bought an iPhone 15, others have expensive branded clothes, some go on expensive holidays, others have received thousands of kroner as a graduation gift. Money is status. If you want, you can go to tiktok and see even more about everything that money can buy. This is how the gap between the haves and the have-nots grows. It must feel incredibly unfair to stand on the sidelines while others scoop up the abundance in our country. It is in this class division that us and them is created. A difference that is big here in our city.
This is when it gets scary.
The more the class divisions increase, the more conflict we will have. Crime is a symptom of this. Sanctions and consequences for those who commit the crime are firefighting. Fires must of course be extinguished, but it is best if they are prevented. The best thing is if it didn’t start burning at all. But it takes resources and long-term work to prevent it.
It costs money to lift people out of poverty.
Money we would rather spend on something else, if I interpret Sandefjord municipality correctly. In any case, a thematic plan for preventive work has been drawn up in our municipality. The most remarkable thing about this plan is that the measures described there must be solved within the existing financial framework. So nothing extra has been allocated. I repeat: preventive work requires resources, it costs money to lift people out of poverty.
Everything is connected.
