In the last two years, i.e. after the pandemic, the youth delinquency presents a huge and alarming explosion. According to EL.AS., nearly two students were assaulted, robbed or attempted each day in 2022 in GREECE.

The total affairs minors with whom the Police services dealt increased by 60%from 4,229 in 2020 to 6,780 in 2023.

In the same period juvenile offenders have increased by 70%, from 4,864 in 2020 to 8,257 in 2023 (the first eight months for which data is available).

“Where we would have a transition into delinquency at about 18, young people now enter at younger ages, at 15 or 16. Technology, the media and the shows that the young person comes into contact with from an early age have played a role in this, as well as the set of factors. Even the school” Fotis Siskos, second police officer of the Attica Juvenile Protection Sub-Directorate, told “K”.

All this, with juvenile gangs to claim supremacy in neighborhoods of Athens, as well as large cities of the country. They indulge in robberiesthey threaten violence to extort mobile phones, money, even clothes from their victims.

In addition to robberies, there has been a dramatic increase in violent beatings and the wild fights.

In total in 2020, the Police handled 126 cases involving bodily harm to minors, while in the first eight months of 2023 alone they handled 377, that is, we see an increase of 199%.

Several incidents were recorded within school complexes, while the cases bullying are reported more and more frequently.

Special increase is also observed in weapons casesfrom 72 cases in 2000 to 201 in 2023 (179%).

Familiarity with weapons worries the authorities

In fact, in the last year many of these attacks have also been carried out with stab. Young people are buying knives, they even take knives through kitchens, most often to threaten and rob. Their goal is mainly robbery.

“There is a familiarity with weapons now, with machetes and other improvised weapons. This is something that strongly concerns the authorities”, says Fotis Siskos to “K”.