The data collected by the authorities on juvenile delinquency, which for certain categories shows an upward trend in recent years, is causing concern and reflection.

Young children who have not yet finished school and have not “entered” the arena of life become the protagonists of severe beatings, robberies, threats, stabbings and even murders.

It is obvious that crime has changed, and with it its “protagonists”, who over time become more and more cruel.

Profile of juvenile delinquents

According to available data, delinquent behavior in children usually begins to manifest itself in pre-adolescence, from 12 to 14 years oldand in the case of untimely intervention or its failure, it can develop into repetitive behavior with even more aggressive characteristics.

In Greece, juvenile delinquency appears to fluctuate between low and moderate severity, with three elements of major concern:

• increase in violent delinquency among young people
• lowering the age limit from which the bringing of minors to criminal responsibility begins and
• numerous and very serious problems underlying families of juvenile delinquents and young people (mental health problems, addictions, involvement of parents themselves in the penitentiary system).

Leaders of EL.AS. talking to cathimerini.grpointed out that, most of the violent and wild incidents involved boys aged 14-15. “In most of the crimes we see that boys are involved. Usually these are children from 14 to 15 years old. It has been established that most often the problem is in the family, and not in education or social status.

In addition, unlike in rural areas, where minors are more likely to know each other, since there is greater social cohesion in small population groups, in a metropolitan environment, conflicts between groups of minors are associated with strangers to each other and depersonalization favors attacks with greater ferocity. In fact, the way they are active is similar to their young age, i.e. impulsive, so their actions are mostly done in public in open spaces such as squares, school yards or neighboring streets.

However, according to the data so-called “serious crime” among persons under 18 remains at a fairly low level compared to the rest of the EU. and Western countries, both qualitatively in terms of the nature of offenses, and quantitatively in terms of the frequency of their commission.

What crimes are on the rise?

Crimes involving juveniles and showing an upward trend is something that concerns them. in property, in drugs, but also in violations of common criminal law (bodily injuries, insults to honor, personal and sexual freedom, etc.).

Important for understanding the growth of this phenomenon are the data collected by the police for 2022.

So, according to them, last year 22 juveniles were arrested for rape, up from 13 a year earlier.Bye 133 minors out of 103 in 2021 were charged with causing bodily harm.

Near 68 juveniles have been charged with dangerous bodily harm, up from 5 in 2021.

And thefts and robberies may have shown a slight downward trend during the pandemic, but they experienced a sharp increase from 2018 to 2019. In particular, the number of robberies increased from 70 in 2018 to 134 the following year.

Finally, in 2022, there was one murder case involving a minor and one attempted murder involving two minors.

Reasons for the growth of the phenomenon

According to the analysis carried out by the management of EL.AS. doing these things, structural changes observed in recent years in society, the technological revolution and the emergence of social networks as the dominant pillar of communication they have created a completely different environment in which the lives of people, especially young people, are formed, as they speak and express themselves in a completely different way.

At the same time, at the cultural level in recent years violence and intolerant discourse are components of a reactionary alternative expression which includes videos, video games, graffiti, comics, as well as various music. This culture, according to EL.AS., is attractive to young people, for some of whom it is a way of self-expression.