Vanuatu

Attention and Crime

wanting attention: what is the relatoin between crimes and the mere want of attention?

So, currently, 50% or more of Vanuatu's population falls in the "youth category". Also, I've talked before about the disappointing situation where lots of these kids come into urban areas but are unable to go to school due to lack of fees and are unable to find jobs even if they have comprabaly-decent education. But, the r eally interesting part is this: in spite of all this, crime is *very* low in Vanuatu, even compared to North America or other developed countries. This is partly because the population isn't too high here, so people don't have to fight for food, place to sleep, and so on. But, besides that, I think the community structure where you are *always* somebody to somebody, deserves to recognized as a very strong deterrent of crime.

So, the usual thing we repeat is: If kids are valued at home and by family than they necessarily dont feel the need to do anything else that will gain them the spotlight, attention or that will help make them feel important.

I would say the same applies here, but when I say family, I not only mean the nuclear family we are used to back in Canada, but I'm most specifically referring to extended family. In fact, I've heard here that whenever a kid is causing problems at home or fighting with his parents, he just picks up and leaves. But even when he has "left" and staying in some other part of the island or country, he's still staying with family, maybe an aunt, maybe an uncle.

posted by faa-T @ 4:58 PM