The document discusses the concept of prevention in juvenile delinquency and the importance of recognizing different factors contributing to youth at risk, such as socio-economic status, family dynamics, and community support. It emphasizes the need for early intervention through interinstitutional cooperation and tailored behavioral programs in local municipalities to effectively address and mitigate risks associated with juvenile crime. Ultimately, it calls for a multidisciplinary approach to crime prevention focused on the living environments of children and adolescents.

1. Youth at risk:
Achieving change
through development of
early intervention and
diversion tools
Ilona Kronberga
Researcher,
Centre for Public Policy PROVIDUS

2. Youth, children, or minors?
It is generally believed that the separation of
those concepts plays an important role in
crime prevention, but in reality it only makes
sense when we think about responsibility and
the punishment. If we think about prevention,
these concepts blend into one – this is just a
person whom we must help to grow up. Our
own future is highly dependent on our ability
to carry out this task .

3. If our aim is to keep young people away from harm caused by crime –
prevention is related to all groups of young people!
Child, adolescent, minor, young adult

4. The relationships among concepts:

5. What does it mean – Youth at risk?
«80.Young people who live in difficult
circumstances are often at risk of becoming
delinquent. Poverty, dysfunctional families,
substance abuse and the death of family
members have been demonstrated to be risk
factors for becoming delinquent. Insecurity due
to an unstable social environment increases
vulnerability, and young people with poorly
developed social skills are less able to protect
themselves against the negative influences of a
peer group.»
United Nations World Youth Report (2005)
http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unyin/wpayjuvenile.htm#WYR2005

6. Actually we can add some new risks:
Adults can
influence
processes
If a child feels
well in his family,
there is no risk

7. Who are children in difficult or in risk
situations? In fact…

8. How does all this link to prevention?
(1)
Prevention is a much broader concept than
generally considered.
Concept of children's crime prevention is
contained in children's rights violation
prevention concept.
These observations work in both cases when a
law is violated by a child (adolescent or young
person) as well as when the rights of a child
(adolescent or young person) are violated.

9. How does all this link to prevention?
(2)
In case when we face a situation in which we
should punish the child, as well as in a
situation when the child has become a victim
or witness of crime, the result is equal –
mechanisms of prevention have not worked.
We have faced conditions that impedes a
normal development of the child – in one case
it is trauma, but in the other – punishment.

10. Which part of the children it is possible to reach
now with preventive mechanisms, but which is
not available?

11. Description of the current situation in Latvia or
why do we need to change anything?
«The child should be blamed for the commission
of the specific criminal offence, the state and
the community should be held guilty for
creating circumstances under which the child
has decided to resolve his/her problems at the
expense of the community in violation of
criminal legal taboos.»
Centre for Public Policy PROVIDUS, Research, 2010
“Restorative Justice in the Aspect of Juvenile Delinquency:
Baltic States in European Dimension.”
http://politika.lv/article/atjaunojosa-justicija-nepilngadigo-noziedzibas-konteksta-baltijas-valstis-eiropas

12. Opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee on The prevention of juvenile
delinquency. Ways of dealing with juvenile delinquency and the role of the juvenile justice
system in the European Union
Juvenile delinquency is currently an aspect of crime
causing growing concern in European societies and
has, since the last century, been under continuous
scrutiny on an international scale. It should
however be pointed out that young people's
behaviour often has a greater impact than that of
adults, especially if it is negative, thus prompting
society to take a particularly adverse view of young
offenders. It is also useful to note that in many
cases the victims of juvenile delinquency are
young people themselves.
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:52006IE0414:EN:HTML

13. Opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee on The prevention of juvenile
delinquency. Ways of dealing with juvenile delinquency and the role of the juvenile justice
system in the European Union
As a result, the importance that European
society attaches to juvenile delinquency
means that effective responses must be
found, which will have to be built principally
on a three-fold foundation:
• prevention,
• punitive-educational measures, and
• the social integration or re-integration of
minors and young offenders.
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:52006IE0414:EN:HTML

14. There are many different reasons or
circumstances that can prompt a minor to
commit a crime:
• A broken home, or even difficulty in balancing
family life and work, both of which
increasingly often result in a lack of attention
and an absence of constraints and control for
children.
• Socio-economic marginalisation or poverty,
which also makes it difficult for the minor to
integrate properly into society.
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:52006IE0414:EN:HTML

15. Why do children commit crimes:
(1)
• Truancy and academic failure: at school, this
already leads to labelling or social
stigmatisation, which often paves the way for
antisocial behaviour or delinquency.
• Unemployment, which is at its highest among
young people and often leads to situations of
frustration and despair, creating a breeding
ground for delinquent behaviour.
• http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:52006IE0414:EN:HTML

16. Why do children commit crimes:
(2)
• The broadcasting of violent images and
attitudes by certain programmes via some
media, or videogames for minors, which helps
to create a system of values among young
people in which violence is seen as acceptable
behaviour.
• http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:52006IE0414:EN:HTML

17. Why do children commit crimes:
(3)
• Abuse of alcohol, drugs and toxic substances
which often causes the addict to commit
crimes in order to support his/her addiction.
• Personality and behaviour disorders, either in
association with or independently of the
factor outlined in the previous point.
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:52006IE0414:EN:HTML

18. Why do children commit crimes:
(4)
• Shortcomings in the teaching and passing on
of social and civic values — such as obeying
rules, solidarity, generosity, tolerance, respect
for others, critical self-awareness, empathy,
high standards of work, etc., which are being
replaced in our "globalised" societies by more
utilitarian values like individualism,
competitiveness or hyper-consumption —
which in certain circumstances can generate a
degree of detachment from society.

19. Children and Justice – an insight into
Latvian law

20. Juvenile Justice instruments in Latvia
are currently fragmented:
«National systems of law are at various
development levels – in some countries due to
the rapid development of Juvenile Justice has, in
actual fact, become an alternative to the
traditional criminal justice (a), in some countries
it has been positioned as a sub-branch within the
frame of criminal justice (b), while in some
countries, including Latvia, it is understood only
as a set of some favourable peculiarities that is
applicable to juvenile delinquents (c).»
Centre for Public Policy PROVIDUS, Research, 2010
“Restorative Justice in the Aspect of Juvenile Delinquency:
Baltic States in European Dimension.”
http://politika.lv/article/atjaunojosa-justicija-nepilngadigo-noziedzibas-konteksta-baltijas-valstis-eiropas-dimensija

21. Reaction to offences committed by
minors

22. Law On Application of Compulsory Measures of a
Correctional Nature to Children...
… is only one diversion tool from the traditional adult liability system
which provide the following compulsory measures:
1) to issue a warning;
2) to impose a duty to apologise to the victims if they agree to meet
with the guilty party;
3) to place a child in the custody of parents or guardians, as well as
other persons, authorities or organisations;
4) to impose a duty to eliminate by his or her work the consequences
of the harm caused;
5) for a child who has reached the age of 15 and who has income – to
impose a duty to reimburse the harm caused;
6) to specify behaviour restrictions (to visit certain public areas...);
7) to impose a duty to perform community services; or
8) to place a child in an educational establishment for social
correction.
The problem is that with only few exceptions, this law is rarely applied.

23. Part I
Conclusions:
• Only by developing Juvenile Justice it is already likely to get
effective tools of diversion;
• Juvenile crime prevention grows from child protection policy;
• To have success in children crime prevention we must understand
that all age groups of children can be exposed to risk situations and
related behavioural risks;
• The greatest prevention should be done at the place where the
child lives – from the birth to adulthood;
• When the police must be involved, the major part of prevention
possibilities is already lost;
• Inclusion and mitigation of social exclusion is not a task which WE
have to do for THEM, it is vital to our joint tomorrow;
• To achieve effective prevention, every written law has to work.

24. ...and now I would ask you to
(Back to slide 6)
remember previously mentioned...
...almost none of the
above mentioned
reasons/risks do not
apply to police
jurisdiction!

25. Therefore the question is – who
must be responsible for the
children delinquency prevention?
We had asked ourselves this question a couple
of years ago

26. ...and now you will see what we have
found out!
Preventive measures with young people should be
taken in each municipality before a law is
violated or especially when a crime is committed
but the situation actually turned out to be
different:
• in many cases in Latvian local municipalities
social workers do nothing and wait for law
enforcement agencies to get clients (minors)
from them after the law violation fact.

27. Preventive measures with young
people – problems and difficulties (1)
In the Ombudsman's report on children's rights
in 2011 in Latvia it was indicated that: in 7
municipalities from 119 nobody does
preventive work with children at risk and in
risk situations (a); only in eight municipalities
it is the responsibility of the Interinstitutional
commission (b); in many cases the creation of
Interinstitutional models was refused from
local governors, even without going into these
matters...
http://www.tiesibsargs.lv/lat/tiesibsargs/jaunumi/?doc=366

28. Preventive measures with young
people – problems and difficulties (2)
mainly this work has been done by the social
workers who, at the same time, are responsible
for all social issues – old people, disabled people,
poor and large families etc. (c);
in many cases, a municipality has only one social
worker who is overloaded with responsibilities
(d);
there are cases when the preventive work is a
responsibility of officials who do not have any
knowledge and skills (e).

29. Taking into account all the above
mentioned
for the second year in Latvia the
Interinstitutional method of early intervention
for prevention of juvenile delinquency has
been approbated.
What is the Interinstitutional method – It is a
children's rights protecting (including child
delinquency prevention) method, which is
suitable for use in the place where the child
lives – local municipality.

30. Interinstitutional
cooperation method
is a professional cooperation among different institutions particularly to
improve the child's living environment

31. Interinstitutional
cooperation method
In the municipalities in which we are introducing the new
method, Inter-Inst working groups meet once every 2
weeks;
It consists of professionals who are working in the local
area with and for children;
Specialists in this collaboration gain greater capacity for
their professional duties and peer support;
Particularly, it is important to manage the consequences
of economic crisis, when everyone feels the lack of
resources, especially professionals working in rural
areas.

32. Each working group:
• is attended by all local law enforcement,
education and other professionals who are
working with or for children;
• examines all known issues on children with
behavioural risks;
• defines the risks, identifies children and their
parents who will be invited to the next meeting;
• in cooperation with parents identifies children's
needs and develop children's behavioural
programme.

33. Children's behavioural programme (1)

34. Children's behavioural programme (2)
If we say: «That is not the best way how to
behave,» we must have something to offer. A
programme to replace wrong behaviour.
For this reason, local governments have established
the catalog of meaningful activities for youth.
Using this activity book, a behavioural programme
for the next 8 months is created ​ for every young
person. For each minor the task description is
given. Minors should report on each performed
task and this is evidenced by the activities
teacher's signature in his or her diary.

35. Children's behavioral program (3)
When the program is finished children's needs
and risks are re-evaluated.
Thus, parents, teachers and children's affairs
professionals have the opportunity to judge
any further work with these children.
(from 33). To new program
• Needs and risks
assessment
• Next decisions
Back to normal life

36. Children's behavioral program (4)
Implementation of such a program in the
municipality requires to set up and develop
certain instruments - keywords:
Risk and Catalogue of
Inter-Inst
need useful
Working
Assesment activities
Groups
System
The Program Cooperation
management Framework
and control for local
system professionals

37. Part II
Conclusions:
• Delinquency prevention is not a task that can be
distributed among the institutions. This must be
done using a multidisciplinary approach;
• Prevention efforts need to be done in place
where child / adolescent / young person /
juvenile living in;
• In each municipality need to be established
children's behavioral program, which includes all
above mentioned tools.

38. Many thanks for your attention!
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