Juvenile delinquency in Romania

(causes,effects and types of measures against juvenile

delinquency)
 Content
 1.How is defined the terminology of juvenile delinquency?
 2. A short socio-historical analysis on juvenile delinquency in
Romania
 3. What are the main causes/factors of juvenile delinquency in our
country?
 4. The Effects of Juvenile Delinquency on the society
 5.Types of measures against juvenile delinquency
6.Conclusions
1.How is defined the terminology of juvenile
delinquency?

 Juvenile delinquency is a component of criminality. It is a

phenomenon of deviance, manifested by the inability of
some minors / adolescents to adapt to the norms of
conduct in society. This inability is due to bio-psycho-
social causes.
 Juvenile crimes can range from status offenses (such as
underage smoking/drinking), to property
crimes and violent crimes
According to developmental research by Moffitt
(2006), there are two different types of offenders that
emerge in adolescence. The first is an age specific
offender, referred to as the adolescence-limited
offender, for whom juvenile offending or delinquency
begins and ends during their period of adolescence.
The other type of offender is the repeat offender,
referred to as the life-course-persistent offender, who
begins offending or showing antisocial/aggressive
behavior in adolescence (or even in childhood) and
continues into adulthood.
2. A short socio-historical analysis on juvenile
delinquency in Romania
The first stage: between 1950 and 1954, a period during which the
phenomenon raised to new levels of consistency due to the
economic crisis and the particular conditions of post-war Romania.
The second stage: between 1983 and 1986, during which time the
phenomenon trebled in number in comparison to the previous
period. Many juvenile delinquents were those unwanted children
engendered by the coercive measures of the Decree from October
1966 which interdicted abortion and imposed a drastic narrowing
of the grounds for divorce.
The third stage: from 1989 until nowadays, a period during which
the phenomenon of juvenile delinquency registered the biggest
increase in number and qualitative modifications (from
approximately 4.010 juvenile delinquents identified in 1989 to over
27.000 identified by the police body in 1997 and 1998).
3. What are the main causes/factors of juvenile
delinquency in our country?
 The transition from a centralized system to a democratic
one and to the market economy in Romania entailed a
lot of social problems. The economic decline,
enterprises restructuring, unemployment, widening
disparities in different domains, sharpening of external
migration and many more, had unfavorable
consequences on family lives and, not in the least, on
children condition

 This generated family and school abandon trends, which represent
major causes for the proliferation of certain phenomena, such as
“institutionalized children” and “children of the streets” and, implicitly,
for the amplification of pre-delinquency and juvenile delinquency
trends.
 Sociology and criminology from our country research to the fact that
the significant factors which encouraged juvenile delinquency are:
 Educational deficiencies within the family;
 Educational deficiencies in school and social environment;
 Objective and subjective, general and social, determinations among
diverse internal factors (linked to the personality of the youngster),
as well as external factors (economic, social, cultural) .
Specialists consider that the factors with the biggest “criminogen”
potential are represented by:
1. Discordant or even “negative” socialization within certain families
with juvenile delinquent children, whose characteristics are: serious
and repeated conflicts between parents and between parents and
children, lack of affectivity and communication, family abandonment
and alcohol consumption, etc.
 2. Failure and school dropout, indifference towards school
manifested in the minors’ poor school performance which, in its turn,
contributes to their “marginalization” by teachers and educators and
which facilitates further their propensity to delinquency;
3. Influence or negative “induction” of the street or peer groups
which, through language, behaviour or diverse particular activities,
formed potential “sources” for juvenile delinquency.
 4. The Effects of Juvenile Delinquency
on the society
Juvenile Delinquents has so many negative effects to
the family and society,they are the ones who hurt
their parents feelings and so to other people who
loves them dearly. It can be avoided if, from the start
the parents knows how to discipline their child.
For example, when some teenagers, mostly boys,
commit a felony or a misdemeanor, such as
vandalism, their parents are worried about these
situations that are against the laws and family rules.
 A Delinquency Charge Can Have Devastating Ripple Effects
on a Child’s Access to an Education
5.Types of measures against
juvenile delinquency
 There are two categories of special protection measures are
stipulated by law for children who have penal responsibility:
punishments and educative measures.
 For children in conflict with law and having penal liability, in
Romania, exists three types of correctional facilities:
reformatory centres for underage persons (RCU);
penitentiaries for underage persons and youth (PUY);
sections within penitentiaries for adults (within most of the
penitentiaries for adults sections for underage persons exist,
for most of them the trials being ongoing, who are to be
afterwards transferred to a RCU or PUY).
 The Criminal code in force contains a reduced range of
measures and sanctions for children who have committed
criminal offences, and the alternative measures to
deprivation of liberty are very few. Postreleased assistance
is not regulated and mediation in criminal matters is
limited.
 The Criminal procedure code in force doesn’t provid for
the obligation to quote the parents and the defender in the
criminal investigation phase, previous to the presentation
of the procedural stages of criminal proceedings and they
are no penalties or other effective means to ensure the
presence of parents or legal representatives on key
procedural moments.
 Currently operates a single court for minors and young
people, in Braşov. A limited number of trial courts has
special rooms for the conduct of trials in which children
are involved and there are no spaces specifically
intended for children on remand custody
 There are no specialized compartments at the police and
prosecution offices for work with juvenil offenders.
6.Conclusions
The phenomenon of juvenile delinquency are higher and stronger
that those of the psychological factors which still play an
important role. Therefore, if there is an adequate socialization of
the minor both within family and in the educational environment, if
he/she has suitable material possibilities, if he/she lives in a
good, encouraging environment, and if he/she does not fraternize
with a dubious entourage, then the minor has a much lower
probability to commit offences punished by the law. The results of
the studies from the communist era and after 1989, along with the
empirical data brought forth by our studies show the significant
role of socio-educational factors in the making of juvenile
delinquency. Specialists are, therefore, very important for dealing
with this social phenomenon by developing, on the basis of the
factors identified by these studies, prevention and intervention
programs targeting juvenile delinquency.
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