The ever increasing juvenile delinquency cases that come to “light” lately are shocking on the one hand with their frequency and on the other with the aggression that is manifested. Experts argue that the average age of children who engage in delinquent behavior has also fallen, which is a cause for concern, attributing the phenomenon largely to new lifestyles, pandemic confinement, misuse of the internet and domestic violence which children experience.

Paris Zagourapresident of the Association of Juvenile Court Supervisors of Greece and Yannis Prandalos, secretary of the association who spoke to APE-MPE, consider that the delinquency of minors is part of the total delinquency in a society and we should not separate it from the total delinquency and that of adults. The president of OLME, Nikiforos Konstantinou tells APE-MPE that the pandemic and its consequences were a catalyst for the manifestation of extreme and delinquent behavior in schools.

“In fact, incidents of violent delinquency by groups of, indeed, minors have increased markedly, as has their viewership: robberies involving mobile phones, dangerous bodily harm and fights between groups of children, etc. are increasingly highlighted by the media and concern the Juvenile Prosecutor’s Office, Juvenile Court and Juvenile Probation Services. Precisely because of the violent nature of the incidents, they are reported more often. Juvenile delinquency is part of the overall delinquency in a society, the non-legal phenomenon. Thus, juvenile delinquency participates in and is shaped by this general context and accordingly constructs a representation of it. It is one of the aspects of social topography. If we set strict and impenetrable boundaries between total delinquency and juvenile delinquency, we lose sight of the general picture that produces and reproduces all forms of crime with their particular characteristics, and thus we will transform and fragment a global problem into a problem of individual, ethnic, etc. . pathology or in a problem to be solved by the individual systems, such as school, family, justice, etc., which are called upon to act individually“, the representatives of the Board of Directors of the Association of Juvenile Court Administrators of Greece tell APE-MPE.

For the president of OLME, “the pandemic brought out a lot of hidden psyche. The phenomena were intense. You remember the feeling of survival was intense, there was intense fear, there was isolation and all this worked negatively on everyone’s psyche. And especially families. Which bring us this bad behavior inside the school».

The expression of violence in schools has also increased. Nikiforos Constantinou emphasizes that the incidents have increased after the pandemic with a geometric progression and concern both high schools and high schools. In fact, Mr. Konstantinou says that last year there were even resignations of teachers from schools due to extreme phenomena.

“The complaints that come to us from our colleagues are daily at all levels” says the president of OLME and refers to aggressive behavior of students towards their classmates, especially towards younger classmates. “In the last 2 years we have had a big increase and aggressive behavior towards teachers, something we didn’t have before. They record them on video, they attack them and sometimes they attack them en masse, that is to say we now have phenomena of en masse attacks by students against a teacher, or against fellow students, And there again en masse. We don’t have individual attacks, but rather mass and organized attacks,” explains Mr. Konstantinou and continues by saying: “We recently saw an extracurricular student enter the school and threaten a teacher. We have seen students cheering on a teacher in the courtyard. What we are asking is to examine the problem psychologically and limit it. The logic is not to go to extremes, the logic is to be able to help the whole situation because these children need help and support».

For the president of OLME, it is necessary to recruit many more psychologists in schools. As he says, three or four psychologists are needed in an EPAL that has over 400 students, and in the rest, one. “The phenomenon was observed that once a week when the psychologist goes to the school, we have queues, not only of students, but after the pandemic we also have queues of parents who cannot afford to go to a private psychologist and use the school psychologist. There is a huge need“, he also notes and adds: “The positive thing is that it is not such a social phenomenon, we do not have ghettoization of areas, ghettoization of individuals, as happens abroad. That is, there we have strong social phenomena which bring problems into the school. On the contrary, in us, in our schools, from what we see, there are problems of the family and problems of a friendly environment which are externalized inside the school, but they are not strongly social, they are not social».

Regarding the handling of the issue, the representatives of the Board of Directors of the Association of Juvenile Court Administrators of Greece argue: “If there are no radical political choices to support, strengthen and create appropriate structures and means and change the social model, then yes, and a further increase in juvenile delinquency and violence will occur. If we distance ourselves from the above view, we risk getting trapped in an irrational and counterproductive fragmentation of responsibilities (“the school is to blame, the family is to blame”, etc.) and unilateral interventions».

This does not mean that the role of school and family is not critical. “Certainly the assistance of specialized professionals, who must be organically integrated into school life and community, is important. The activation of collectives (teachers, parents, students) within and in collaborative actions that develop within the context of local society is equally important. But how things are planned and done is also important. We are often faced with processes of creating scapegoats, where children and families are treated through stereotypes and are not given a real opportunity or timely, appropriate and supportive support to function within the school community. Willing and aware teachers are not enough. Nor are the occasional positive initiatives enough. Increased care mechanisms are needed at all levels and over time. E.g. mediation and reconciliation practices, intervention in the crisis in a way that does not exclude but includes the members of the community, etc. it is necessary to integrate into the culture and routines of school life. For this reason, specific protocols applied by specialized professionals are needed, as well as teacher training in order to welcome and support this way of working.“, assert Paris Zagoura and Yiannis Prandalos.