Juvenile Delinquency in Lithuania

 Juvenile Delinquency in Lithuania Every democratic country’s future perspectives are based on the intellectual and moral investment into the children’s and youth’s personality, knowledge, education and social security. Lithuania had experienced various shocks, hardship and crises. People had differently adjusted to the changes; some had stroke it rich, some got poor, and some did not change their way of life in at all. The country of Lithuania could be proud, because the process of development is moving forward and advances. Many things improve, but the political system. All the political figures talk about the importance of children, youth, and their defense, but the problems of pensioners, or the government taxes always turn out to be more topical and urgent to solve. Few millions of litas (Lithuanian money, 1 dollar is equal to 2.6 litas) had been thrown for the narcotic addiction prevention, trying to solve the problem over one year, but it does take much more to avoid, prevent, and stop this. When there is a need to meet problem suddenly nobody knows who should do what. Certain actions are being taken quickly just to make sure that the government will not be accused of doing nothing, but these actions are vain. Juvenile delinquency problem is very relevant in Lithuania today. The problem is getting more and more serious everyday, but the attention drawn towards it is not adequate. In this paper, I will try to describe the conception of delinquency, summarize the tendency of the juvenile delinquency increase, mark the causes of such problem, and reveal the effect of the confinement institution to the further socialization of the under-aged. First, I will explain what person is considered to be juvenile in the country of Lithuania and what the term “delinquency” means to the culture. Although the word “delinquency” is abstract, complex, and could be correctly understood only having certain knowledge in law, it still does draw concrete associations for most people. Some people relate the term to homicide, others to theft or robbery. According to the Lithuanian dictionary delinquency “is an activity, dangerous to the system of dominant values.” It sounds terribly, especially when the activity is being performed by a person of 14-18 years young. The individual of that age is considered juvenile or under-aged in Lithuania. The children that belong to the risk group include: those who had served their sentence in educational and discipline institution, or those whose sentence had been postponed, children who had committed legal violation, and those who have transgression records in their school files, children who have asocial behavior symptoms, or those who live in particularly bad conditions, which could motivate the delinquency, and finally those who grow up in dysfunctional families, live as a tramp, live in the streets. Recreating democratic country the government of Lithuania did not avoid temporary but painful negative social political consequences, concerning the most vulnerable part of society- kids and juvenile. The increase of school nonattendance, spending time in streets, drug use, and transgressions among juvenile attracts more and more attention. The juvenile position in Lithuania is strongly connected to social politics and social security spheres. Through the last years the problem of children wellbeing is actively discussed and analyzed, because children poverty and social differentiation issue is most severe. Lithuanian society experiences certain population explosion for the past few years. The ranks of inhabitants decrease because of the increasing death rate and declining birth rate. The country is concerned bout unemployment, poverty, low living standards, great emigration to the economically well-established states, rising homeless, street children number, and other social badness’. Children in Lithuania constitute a marked part of population in Lithuania; they make up the third of population. The big percentage of these children is socially derelict, poorly living, coming from large families, and poverty-stricken villages kids. The biggest concern goes to asocial families and their kids. Difficult social situation determines such phenomenon as rising delinquency. Every forth child is being indrawn to a crime by adult, every tenth-by his or her parents. More and more juvenile gets into delinquency, most of the cases, these people are unemployed and free from school children. In Lithuania juvenile delinquency is increasing even faster than the delinquency in general. The under-aged are being sentenced for most severe crimes, such as rape or murder lately. The table below shows the tendency of the juvenile delinquency in Lithuania for the past few years. Data of the Juvenile Delicuency in Lithuania Years 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 Number of inspected crimes, commited or supported by juvenile 4467 5519 5396 5152 6652 This trend poses a great disquiet, because half of these delinquent individuals belong to the 14-21 years group of age. The increase of high school and college students committing the crime through the past years is bid. More and more crimes are being repeated by the same delinquents, along with adults. Drug addiction is spreading fast and involves more and more students and youngster, which poses the great danger to life, human health, intellectual potential and social development, but creates perfect conditions for organized crime to float. The main and closest community to the child is family. It is unique social institution, because in the family fundamental values and norms are being planted. Lithuanian family is getting features of most developed Western countries: marriages are being postponed for the later time, the phenomenon of unmarried couples living together is growing, more and more children are being born in common-law marriages, and the birth rate is decreasing. Asocial families are one of the direst social problems in Lithuania. In the times of economical changes many such families become the cause of various negative appearances. Children suffer the most in these families. In most cases parents from asocial families lose custody of their kids, who then become the victims of violence. Asocial families, as the most impellent group, very often form wrong behavior stereotypes for their children. Such families are becoming more frequent in Lithuania. Upbringing is one of the most important factors to the personality development. Some parents chose to slap their kid, trying to express their anger and guide the little one with such action. Spanking children is a common way of teaching a kid a lesson. Rare parent will try to discuss the wrongdoing of a child sitting calmly and trying to explain the consequences of such behavior. Most parents of a former Soviet Union simply spank a kid to solve a problem. This ritual probably comes from the Russian aggressive temper, which was somewhat passed to the occupied countries’ cultures and still practiced in many families, even though 13years have past after Lithuania got independent. The practice of children spanking often produce aggression and violence in offspring and it spreads outside the house, to the streets. Children who experience the lack of parents love, attention and protection often use alcohol or drugs, which is a very big problem is Lithuania as well. These addictions often become the causes of juvenile delinquency. Lately, alcohol, drugs, tobacco products are being tried by the young age of young people, this type of activity becomes the main form of spending leisure time. Intoxicated youth cannot control emotions, actions, and commit severe unlawful acts. Even though family plays the main role in individual’s character formation, school and peer groups have a great impact on the children during maturation as well. There is a strong evaluation pressure, being conveyed in schools in Lithuania. Children’s achievements, features, and characteristics are being evaluated and compared to the others’. Obviously negative feedback is being expressed very often. Especially those who come from the asocial families get criticized most. From the first day in school those kids get a huge pressure from teachers and peers, as they are the potential unsuccessful students, rebellious, and unpredictable. Even though this stereotype does not necessarily reflect some “street” family kid, he or she would still be treated as an oppressed one. Trying to neutralize friends’ and teachers’ negative estimation, those kids start to ignore their influence, behave brutally, cheeky, and sometimes use physical force, threats, and violence. The oppressed youngster experienced emotional discomfort in school could be reinforced by various teachers’ working imperfections, mistakes, or unprofessional approach. Most of Lithuanian teachers are not interested what their students do after school, simply because they were not trained to do so. Teachers do not talk to students about their family issues, connections with friends, or problems in general. Teachers are trying to get rid of the asocial students, and when the right opportunity come, he or she would definitely transfer the trouble guy to another class. Feeling unneeded in school and at home, where parents do not care about them, asocial juvenile go to streets, where they steel, drink, and use drugs. Especially invidious situation is what they call in Lithuania “number six.” The term stands for the inability oh a person to protect himself or herself. The “numbersixer’s” are the ones that could not earn the prestige among the peers and are treated as a lower class children or sometimes even as slaves. In many cases the “losers” have to give away the money to the “cool” ones. The school government is constantly trying to avoid that kind of relationship, but it is constantly happening. A new wave of juvenile delinquency is emerging in Lithuania. Teenagers, invoking the newest technology, are making fun of, mocking, and hurting weaker kids. The young criminals record the offence and demonstrate it on the internet. Now it is know that this criminal activity has been taking place in smaller towns of Lithuania for a while. The government has designed strict punishments for such actions occurring in the future. The mass media in the former Soviet Union country has a huge influence on person’s socialization. It has been noticed that this media becomes more and more significant forming the values and norms of a young people. The most high-powered form of the media in Lithuania is television. Internet is catching up. Kids watch violent movies, cartoons; play video games that bring up the violence in their heads. There is absolutely no parental control program regarding the violent TV broadcasting in Lithuania. Stating that letting kids watch any outrageous program makes them want to repeat that and look as a “cool guy on TV” is absolutely correct. Young people become much more likely to solve any problem using the force. According to the Lithuanian press survey results, when Lithuanian mass media deliver information about crime it tends to create exaggerated, perverted criminal state image. All the countries around the world face the problem of children in some way. Lithuania and other Baltic countries are not an exception, only here 50 years of occupation left special print, that exacerbate recreation of natural human rights and freedom. The system of juvenile protection in Lithuania could be brought under few main branches: legal help for children, social help for children and young adults, medical help for children and juvenile and psychological help for already mentioned two groups of people. Legal help for children in Lithuania is being provided by the Office of Children Rights Protection, which are established next to every municipality. Such help is being given by the juvenile affairs’ inspectors. Social help is offered by public as well as private children organizations. There are care centers in every city, where children and adults could get social help. These are the few organizations that provide social help: Anonymous Alcoholic Association, Center of the Intimate Life and Hygiene Problems, Youth Center “Babylon,” where young people can come to spend their free time and engage in different kinds of educational activities, Center of Youth Psychological Problems, which works towards preventing suicide, the AIDS Center in Lithuania, “Shelter,” center created based on USA and UK experts’ recommendations, and many more. It is just a tiny part of organizations working to help educate the youngster in Lithuania. These organizations try to do the best to improve the situation of children in the country, although many information, experience, and methods are still missing. Four special children care and education homes are established in Lithuania. Kids get here after having committed transgression or crime. In the special home the number of residing kids ranges from 51 to 69. These are the institutions where kids change. Lately, many people do not doubt that confinement is not the way to stop or at least diminish juvenile delinquency. Historical experience and science researches show that strict punishments have no effect on the status of crime, even opposite, reinforce recrudescence. It would be naïf to believe that such conditions as they get in jail could make the delinquents think positively. Traditional reformation of human thinking in the institutions of imprisonment is based dictatorship, isolation, limited possibilities, and insularity. For successful socialization people need different kind of means: openness to the environment, ability to learn responsibility, consciousness, partnership, confidence, and tolerance. Every democratic country’s future perspectives are based on the intellectual and moral investment into the children’s and youth’s personality, knowledge, education and social security. Increasing juvenile delinquency, drug addiction include more and more young people every year, posing great danger for health, social wellbeing, and life. Untoward conditions in a family, negative peers’ impact, uncomplimentary mass media means of spreading information, and some other individual characteristics are the factors having the greatest influence on increasing juvenile delinquency in Lithuania. Educational system prevents less capable and talented students attend college. Conflict of abilities and possibilities arises. Prevention collaborating with students’ parents, guardians, teachers, and other institutions’ members would construct optimal educational conditions, would help solve juvenile delinquency problem, and would diminish the likelihood of crime in young ages. Children coming from different social groups would be integrated into society. It is important to realize that putting young people to jail for delinquency would not be effective trying to stop it. Other alternatives should be found and the person should choose whether he or she wants to confinement institution, or rehabilitation center, where certain rules are set. Sponsorship is also very important developing programs, ideas for educating children. Lithuanian government should put more efforts to fight the problem. Bibliography: Grigas, R. The Fields of Social Tension in Lithuania. Vilnius: VPU, 1998. Luobikiene, I. Common Bases and Research Methods. Kaunas, 1997. Nisbet, R. Tradition of Sociology. Pradai, 1997. Sociumas. 2006. Retrieved on 2 Nov. 2006 from

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