New research from the PROMENTA Research Centre finds that in Norway, young people whose parents have higher education are less frequently charged with drug-related offences than their peers from families with lower education, despite both groups reporting similar levels of use of illicit drugs or drug dealing.
This is in line with past findings showing that adolescents who come from homes with fewer resources are more frequently charged with crimes, including drug-related crimes, than other adolescents. This piece of evidence is part of PROMENTA’s efforts towards answering questions relevant to social inequality and drug use and related-policy, two key areas of interest at the Research Centrer.
While the findings may not be surprising, they contribute to the recent current Norwegian debate on drug policy reforms and ongoing discussions about the fairness of the Norwegian police and judicial system, especially in light of the recently-observed increase in socio-economic differences in the country.
An important next step in this line of research is to identify specific mechanisms that explain why high parental education is related to less frequent drug charges.
Read more about this work here: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugpo.2021.103491
By Stella Tsotsi