Kosovo In 40 days, 32 cases of delinquency committed by juveniles The records of the Center for Social Work of Gjakova reflect an increase in juvenile delinquency

February 11, 2011

Comment: This short article highlights the current situation regarding juvenile delinquency in Kosovo. It clearly describes the increase of this phenomenon with figures showing that from one year to another, these figures are higher. The facts shown are real statistics which come from state and authorized sources such as the Center for Social Work or the Prosecution Office, that deal with this phenomenon. This article provides more than one source referring this data and compares the figures to those of the previous years, offering thus a clear picture of what the actual situation is and how it has developed in the last years. The author does not go in depth to provide a full analysis of the situation.

The article however explains the Task Force model and its role, considering it a very important structure. The Task Force was created and developed by the Tdh project: “Developing a Child Protection Safety Net in Kosovo” :http://tdh-childprotection.org/projects/kosovo/description(CPSN). It consists of representatives from state institutions such as the Center for Social Work, Educational Regional Directorate, also Antitrafficking and Community police, doctors, NGOs, and deals with five main categories of children who are in a vulnerable situation. These cases may include child exploitation/traficking, abuse, risk of delinquency/conflict with the law and neglect. Task Forces conduct the whole process starting from the identification as well as all the steps of a case management such as direct interventions toward the children, vocational trainings, reintegration in school, etc.

Comments: Klevis Vaqari, Monitoring & Evaluation Officer / Advocacy Officer