The role of police in prevention of delinquent behaviour of children and minors

Abstract

There is no doubt that the activities undertaken by police in order to prevent delinquent behaviour of children and minors should be directed towards strengthening of mechanisms of informal social control at the level of local community. The central role in the process of upbringing and education of children and minors, and also in the prevention of their possible delinquent behaviour, belongs to the family and school. This is why the activities of police, as far as the prevention in this field is concerned, should be directed towards timely noticing of problems within a family that could cause disturbances in realization of its upbringing function. These are primarily the problems of family violence, which are often the consequence of unemployment and many other deviant manifestations such as alcoholism, drug-abuse, prostitution and similar. Certainly, it cannot be expected from police to start solving these problems it the measures undertaken by law enforcement officers are not supported by the activities of social institutions, institutions for the treatment of addiction diseases, parent counseling institutions and other institutions. The important component in the activities of police on prevention of delinquent behaviour of children and minors is the cooperation with pre-schools and schools in the course of their upbringing and educational process. With the consent of parents, the police should start building the relation of mutual trust with children through cooperation with pre-schools so that the police educational programs would have the best possible impact during the later development stage, i.e. in the stage of their primary and secondary school. The manner in which police prevents school violence should also be taken into account when considering possibilities of police activities on prevention of delinquent behaviour of the young. Too repressive conduct of police towards pupils could be more harmful than useful to the relation of mutual trust, as well as excessive measures of security that police has carried out lately in order to prevent violence by persons not belonging to school environment. Police could contribute to prevention of delinquent behaviour of children and minors to a certain degree through organization of recreation centers, sport clubs and competitions for the youth, establishing clubs for the entertainment of the young and other forms of organized use of their spare time. Finally, it should take into account that police could contribute to prevention of delinquent behaviour of children and minors that have committed a crime for the first time, or to the young people who have not yet committed a crime but because of the lack of discipline in school (skipping classes, running from home and similar) drew attention of the school and parents. Police should provide for making contact with families of the children who have committed a crime for the first time as soon as possible in order to prevent further manifestation of delinquent behaviour.

S obzirom na značaj i ulogu porodice i škole u procesu socijalizacije mladih, a time i prevenciji njihovog delinkventnog ponašanja, U radu se prvenstveno razmatra mogućnost pozitivnog uticaja policije na proces vaspitanja i obrazovanja dece i maloletnika. Imajući u vidu ulogu porodice u procesu vaspitanja u radu se ukazuje na potrebu angažovanja policije u sprečavanju nasilja u porodici čije su žrtve, direktno ili indirektno, deca. Potom se ukazuje na značaj vaspitno-edukativnog rada policije u predškolskim i školskim ustanovama za prevenciju delinkventnog ponašanja, kao i način angažovanja policije u sprečavanju nasilja u školama, s obzirom da neadekvatno postupanje pripadnika policije ponekad može podstaći nepoverenje mladih u policiju i manifestaciju delinkventnog ponašanja. Na kraju rada navedene su mogućnosti angažovanja policije u organizaciji slobodnog vremena dece i maloletnika i postupanju pripadnika policije sa maloletnicima koji su po prvi put učinili krivično delo, odnosno mladima koji nisu učinili krivično delo, ali su zbog nediscipline u školi, izostajanja sa časova, bežanja od kuće i sličnog ponašanja skrenuli pažnju škole i roditelja.