The public was disturbed by the news that a group of minors recently beat, kicked, and put out cigarettes on the skin of a fifteen-year-old girl in a park in New Belgrade. The police have identified the perpetrators. Cases like this one once again open the question of how to respond more effectively to peer violence.
The girl experienced similar abuse from the same children in April. This time, doctors found hematomas, burns, and cuts. The girl’s father says that the scars are healing, but not the trauma his daughter has survived.
-Those are dozens of scars from putting out cigarettes. First, they hit her in the head with brass knuckles, and after that they tortured her for four hours. I hope that parents will influence their children, because this has escalated to some limits that I cannot comprehend – the girl’s father says.
“Those are dozens of scars from putting out cigarettes. First, they hit her in the head with brass knuckles, and after that they tortured her for four hours. I hope that parents will influence their children, because this has escalated to some limits that I cannot comprehend,” the girl’s father says.
And the age of criminal responsibility is acquired at fourteen. However, even then, the punishments are significantly milder than after adulthood. Only educational measures are imposed.
Since the beginning of the year, 69 cases of juvenile peer violence have been reported to the prosecution, almost half for inflicting severe bodily harm.
“Which criminal sanction the prosecution will propose to the court depends on the personal and family circumstances of the juvenile offender and the severity of the crime. The prosecution most often proposes enhanced parental supervision, enhanced supervision by the guardianship authority, an educational-correctional institution, training for a profession that corresponds to their abilities,” the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office in Belgrade announced.
However, experts say that these measures are not always effective, because children known for violent behavior continue to be aggressive.
“In my opinion, the focus here is on the social protection system, the education system, and I would say the health system. We are aware of the fact that children are on networks, that has become their real life, and when they come out into real life they don’t have something called social skills,” says Ivana Stevanović from the Institute for Criminological Research.
From the Court, they point out that the key is better cooperation of everyone in the system, from the school, parents, to social institutions. They also lack, they say, trained people who will monitor the behavior of the violent child after the measures have been imposed.
“We need all actors to be sufficiently trained, but truly trained to work in the best interest of the child. When the whole society reacts, any measure can have some effect. Until then, if you have resistance from parents, or you have a lack of interest or even indulgence in that sense, no measure that the court imposes is enough,” says Milica Milić, a judge from the juvenile department.
Nada Stankov, a school psychologist at “Jovan Sterija Popović” Elementary School, says parents should control who their child hangs out with, where they go out, and until when they go out.
“Unfortunately, due to the overload of parents, they often don’t follow up on that, and also, children don’t have enough trust in their parents, so it often happens that they don’t report the violence they have suffered or committed to their parents,” says Nada Stankov.
Some countries have partially solved the problem of peer violence by introducing a requirement for parents to visit a psychologist with their child. Norway can testify to how difficult a job that is. It took them more than 15 years for schools without violence.
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Source: RTS; Foto: Printscreen RTS