It is enough to write a message in the class group chat on social networks. “You are a big t*,” they write, then post a photo of a girl being targeted by a boy. The next day, the cleanup takes place in the yard or on the streets around the school and is so brutal that the students involved end up in the courts.

It’s a typical story we’re facing right now Georgia Efstatiaducurator of juveniles in Thessaloniki and doctoral student in the department of social work at the University of Western Attica.

Splash of youth violence

“K” contacted the Juvenile Probation Service in Thessaloniki following the recent explosion of youth violence in the country to hear the thoughts of young people themselves behind closed doors. As a juvenile probation officer, Ms. Efstatiadu researches the lives of juvenile offenders involved in the justice system, formulates suggestions for the most appropriate treatment for them, and at the same time advises and supports them and their families.

She confirms what we’ve all suspected lately: “We have a feeling that violent crime has increased, but age has also come down.” According to him, earlier, mainly 17-year-olds were involved in violent incidents, now curators see 15- and 16-year-olds, and 13-14-year-olds appear, who previously did not touch them at all.

Often arguments start on social media and then continue in the real world. Sometimes, though, something so “tangible” shouldn’t even be happening. Describing a real case, Ms. Efstatiadu mentions the story of a girl who heard from her friends that another classmate was commenting on her. He went to ask her why, and when the other replied that she wasn’t even worth messing with, he retaliated with a punch. The situation got out of control and the thief appeared in front of Mrs. Efstatiadou’s office. When she asked what the other girl said against her, she didn’t even know.

How fights start

As the curator notes, the most common causes of a fight are: interpersonal and emotional relationships, the uniqueness of the child -i.e. how he differentiates himself from the whole, from being a very good student to being very tall compared to his classmates- or support a sports team.

“However, the reason may be trivial. Many times children come and tell us what the scene started with fixed view: “I asked him why he was looking at me, he scolded me, and a fight started,” he stressed.

Most of the incidents that come to the curatorial office occur outside or around the school. “After graduating from school or on the bus, they might meet and ask each other to perform,” he describes, adding that they usually go in groups to ask for a performance. “It’s a feeling of support from a friend and so it’s easy to interact.”

“I didn’t think we’d achieve what we’ve achieved.”

This, however, a few years ago would not have led to fights of such brutality. There are many causes, but they can be traced back to three levels. First, there are personality traits and the adolescence they create. difficulty managing emotions and brings impulsiveness. “[Οι ανήλικοι] they act impulsively. This is the most intense thing they describe to me. I don’t know, maybe this is also a way to justify themselves, but exactly what they describe: “I didn’t think about it then, I didn’t go for this purpose, I went to ask him, but he told me this, and then I got angry, I didn’t think we’d get to where we got to, I didn’t mean to… I kicked him.”

Critical balance at school and in the family

The second part is related to family. “In many cases, the manifestation of aggressive behavior is related to how family conflicts are resolved in the family and how parents cope with problems. Previously, the family was an emotional group, there were connections and interactions, now it is becoming mainly an economic group. “Parents focus on running, daily life and processing and leave behind setting limits and managing emotional situations,” says the K curator, explaining that limits, authority, equality are internalized in the family, and the inability to manage them can also encourage inappropriate behavior. She even mentions that her children often describe their parents leaving in the morning and returning at night.

However, it also plays a very important role. school. “The school has a system that has recently moved away from collective competition and social action, placing more emphasis on categorizing children. He divides them into good and bad students, disciplined and undisciplined, so it is difficult for the teacher to manage everything that happens. But when the professor discounts the process [επίλυσης] subject, the natural next step for the child is to discredit the school and the system.” She finds that the school focuses on the individual, rather than the collective level of problem solving, believing that its responsibility ends with the imposition of punishment, such as expulsion.

“I saw this in a Tik Tok challenge”

Teenagers’ constant contact with social media has also changed behavior compared to previous years. “Children have been arrested. I won’t tell you what they did, but what they did was a challenge (an action that challenges each other through social media) that they saw on Tik Tok,” says Georgia Baltira, also a juvenile curator in Thessaloniki, describes his recent experience. What he understands when talking to children is that many times they mimic what they see on social media. “From a conversation I have with them, they tell me they have seen similar behavior on social media,” he tells K, adding that these images are repeated in the eyes of teenagers so many times that they no longer realize the consequences of their actions. as a result of which they are even driven to offenses simply to follow the trend that prevailed at that time on the Internet.

“Teenagers can’t take it, they can’t understand it yet, because it’s a wave, a trend that touches their soul, but they can’t process it yet.”

Aggression in all spheres of life

“This is violence as a culture of success in our society, because there is a cruel politician, a cruel artist, a cruel parent, a cruel teacher. All this is written for children.

“Delinquency can have gradations depending on the profile and economic situation. But aggression can be in all social strata. I’m not sure that the financial situation can distinguish such behavior, because it psychosocial behavior. In other words, the quality of relationships in the family, school and society depends on how psycho-emotionally protected the child is,” says Ms. Efstatiadu, adding that on the other hand, children come from areas that are considered to be wealthier and from areas that are considered to be poorer.. The bad relationship or distance a child can get from parents can be in both a rich family and a poor family, and in both cases, the parents can work all day.

Ms. Efstatiadu also refers to the society factor. There, as he says, one prevails power culturewhere successful is the one who earns money and has power. “Aggressive behavior includes how I dominate and impose on another person. The teenager absorbs this culture in a complex and unconventional way. Violence is not only something that a teenager applies to his classmate, it is violence as a culture of success in our society because there is a cruel politician, a cruel artist, a cruel parent, a cruel teacher. All this is written for children.

Permission

As an experienced editor points out, the development that a child can have with consultations what she and her colleagues have done depends largely on how the parents, who often try to justify the child, deal with it.

If both the child and the parents follow the counselors’ sessions and advice, the teenager’s business can go very well and break out of the vicious circle of violence in which he has fallen. For her colleague, Ms. Baltira, age is also an important factor. “From 14 to 16 years old, I think that this is the age period when children do not realize a lot. Since the court usually comes to them later, and it takes a reasonable time before they are found guilty of their actions, most people really wonder how they could have done something criminal at that time. Their conversation is:how could I do it?“.

The service also very often promotes the reconciliation and apology part., that is, for the minor to be face to face with the child he hit, hear how he went through this process, express himself emotionally, and then the abuser apologized. “It has a huge pedagogical character, because an emotional contact unfolds in front of you, which is of great importance. As if the masks are falling. We’re really trying at this point to treat each other as equals, and the tough become equal to the vulnerable. Without these roles, they communicate on an emotional level, and this is where the connection takes place,” concludes Ms. Efstatiadou, saying that the closure of these meetings is very encouraging. “Recently, two children shook hands of their own free will. Finally they said to each other: “when we meet, we’ll say hello, – yes, we leave everything”“.