Plan mulled to tackle juvenile delinquency
Greece’s Health Ministry is preparing a program aimed at developing a model for the prevention and treatment of juvenile delinquency, Stelios Stylianidis, psychiatrist-psychoanalyst and professor emeritus of social psychiatry at Athens’ Panteion University, told Kathimerini.
Juvenile offenders are mostly boys aged 14 to 18 from low socioeconomic backgrounds. They exhibit low self-esteem, a lack of goals and motivation, low performance in school and a high dropout rate. Their family environment is often dysfunctional. The measures will be implemented in schools, municipal welfare, mental health and child protection services, in local police precincts and the competent judicial authorities and sports bodies.
Stylianidis explains that speeches will be given in schools and when an incident occurs, a discussion will be held in the classroom with the students (including the victim and the perpetrator), the scientists involved in the program, the class teacher and the school psychologist. Teachers will be trained in preventing and dealing with incidents of violence while parents will also be involved.
The ministry is also in contact with sports clubs as minors with a history of delinquency are more likely to get involved in hooliganism. The program will be implemented initially in three municipalities: the northern suburbs of Maroussi and Kifissia, where gangs of minors gather around the local train station, and in Thessaloniki.
“Let’s start with something qualitative, that can be assessed and then go further. There is no need for maximalisms,” Stylianidis says.
