In the first six months of the year, 12,837 high school and college students were registered with children’s affairs departments of Ukraine’s Interior Ministry, according to KyivWeekly. While 80% of children registered by criminal police are aged between 14 and 18 years old, 1.6% of the children are 6-10 years old and 18.4% are 11-13 years old. This age group has grown 4.1% compared to the same period last year. Over the first six months of 2011, juvenile delinquents committed 11,781 administrative offences, which is 59.4% higher than over the same period in 2010, KW wrote in an article titled Foster Homes Raise Potential Criminals.
“There is no major difference in the structure of crimes committed by adults and underage children. However, crimes that young children commit differ in terms of degree of cruelty. Children rarely commit crimes to find a bite to eat. Their offenses are more often related to the need for self-affirmation and aggression,” said Director of the Kyiv Children’s Affairs Service Mykola Kuleba.
“The highest risk group in terms of potential criminal behavior is street children. In this case, everything starts with domestic violence – children are beaten, humiliated, feel unneeded, run away from home and end up following the criminal path,” says Oksana Safronova, Chief Expert at the Kyiv Center of Social Services for Families, Children and Youth.
