The vast majority of young criminals in Danish prisons left school when they were 15 or 16, Politiken reports.
Figures from the Justice Ministry show that eight out of ten of the prisoners aged 25 to 29 years have no other education besides public school.
In comparison, only two out of ten youngsters without a criminal record left school at the earliest opportunity.
More support for the socially vulnerable
According to Inge Bryderup, a professor at the Department of Sociology and Social Work at the Aalborg University, uneducated youths are particularly in need of help.
“It is the most socially vulnerable who end up in prison. They struggled at school and schools had a hard time with them,” Bryderup told Politiken.
“However, education is the key to self-support and its importance is even greater now than before when young people could easily get unskilled jobs.”
Bryderup proposes that one more year of public schooling should be added to support the socially marginalised.
Youth crime prevention
Last Sunday, Mette Frederiksen, the justice minister, revealed the government is going to focus more on fighting youth crime, and prevention will be an essential part of that.
Frederiksen suggested more education offers for the socially vulnerable should be available.
