A culture of violence cannot be changed overnight

“We have been preparing in the last months, in cooperation with other ministries and with the leadership of the Prime Minister, to make a multi-faceted approach to this because, as has been mentioned in the discussion on these issues among experts, there is no one thing you can do to fix this in a short time,” Minister of Social Affairs and Children Ásmundur Einar Daðason tells mbl.is about the increase in violent crime among young people.

“It’s something that has been growing in the last few years, and especially now in the last two years. What we’ve been preparing for the last few months is the collective involvement of all parties in this matter. We expect that in the next few seasons we will be able to launch such a project.”

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Daðason stated that the Ministry of Justice, Health, Social Affairs and the Labour Market and his own ministry are faced with a serious challenge. The role of child welfare, social services, sports and recreation, as well as the schools, is also involved.

“We’ve been preparing a big effort to do this, and we really need to focus on long term results, rather than just a few weeks or months because this has been progressing for some time and that’s not going to be solved overnight.”

Other reasons than maliciousness

Last week, it was reported that four young people were arrested for murder in Hafnarfjörður. One of the young people was taken to a ward in Hólmsheiði prison, which usually houses four people because the isolation at Stuðlar facility for young people could not be guaranteed.

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“It is, of course, the case that when it comes to young people like this, child protection comes in. There was a lot of communication between child protection authorities and law enforcement in this case. We have reaffirmed the importance of working with children and working with individuals who are not yet legally available. It’s also very important in the discussion to realize that individuals certainly need to take responsibility, but usually when this kind of thing breaks out that there’s something else that’s behind it.”

Daðason says there are other reasons behind this than the maliciousness of individuals.

“There are often broken backgrounds, social isolation and other factors that can cause these young people to resort to violence like this. That is why we say that in order to deal with this situation in the long run, you need to find out the cause and figure out where we can approach this successfully.”

The minister reiterates that a broad consensus is needed to work towards that task.

“We need to take general preventive measures, we need to look specifically at these socially weak groups and how we can strengthen them. We have created a whole foundation to do that. With the new legislation on the success of children, we are creating a dialogue between different systems and we have all the tools in the box for success in this matter, ” concludes Daðason.