What is the reason for a child or teen to commit a crime? And who should we blame? These questions were discussed last week by twenty young participants of Youth Dialogue Lab (Noorte Arutelulabor).
After a performance of the Ukrainian song and dance group Volya the participants warmed up by discussing opposing ideas: Rules or freedom? Justice or mercy? Support or punishment?
Then it was time to dive into the main question. Working in small groups the participants brainstormed reasons for why young people commit crimes. They came up with were for example: poverty, inequality, social media influence, bullying, violence, social environment, and more.
After that everyone joined an exercise called ‘Step in the Circle if this is true for you’. Many did when responding to statements like ‘I have seen unfairness at school’, ‘I think teens are sometimes blamed unfairly’, and ‘I believe adults don’t always understand teen problems’. A lively conversation followed.
In the second part of the event the youngsters explored who could be blamed for children committing crimes. During the preparations the members of Youth Dialogue Lab decided to invite a few experts to help with the group dialogues. Two officers from the Estonian police working with young delinquents were present. As well as child protection expert Jane Snaith from the NGO Igale lapsele pere (A family for every child).
Every two weeks a group of Estonian, Russian-Estonian, Ukrainian and youngsters from other backgrounds come together to practise dialogue and critical thinking skills.
The topics and questions are selected by the participants themselves. Over the past months they discussed for example questions like: Why should we care about other people we don’t know?, What is the meaning of freedom? and At what point does something fair become unfair?
Youth Dialogue Lab started in September 2025 and final project of the youngsters will be at Arvamusfestival 2026. In Paide they will organise and facilitate their own public dialogue.
This Erasmus+ project is co-funded by the European Union
Photos
Photos by Kristi Sits Photograpy, Estonia