Juvenile Delinquent Behavior and Prevention Opportunities in General Education Schools (from viewpoint of social educators)

Adolescence is risky and critical period. This is the time when personality is being developed, when socialization is taking place and some social roles are being accepted. It is important to notice small crimes committed by children on time to prevent the formation of delinquent behavior. One fifth of all crimes are being committed by juvenile. This is the reason why the prevention and control of delinquent behavior and criminality is fundamental part of all crime prevention and control system. The objective of this thesis is juvenile delinquent behavior. The aim of this thesis is to explore methods of prevention that are being used in general education schools, their efficiency and benefits. The tasks of this thesis are: 1. Finding out what kind of prevention practices exist in schools; 2. Describing viewpoint of social educators on prevention related state‘s policy; 3. Comparing prevention practices in different profile schools. The main conclusions are: • All schools participated in research, despite of their profile, practice prevention by taking part in different programs and projects on the school and state level. • Some of social educators participated in research are being really dissatisfied with the prevention related state‘s policy. Others are being happy with the means and possibilities for prevention provided by state policy. • Schools with complicated children pay more attention to prevention and they use it for solving some existing problems. Other schools use prevention for preemption of inappropriate behavior. • Prevention-related recommendations for schools: pay more attention towards educations of both children and their parents and also school workers; identify and eliminate causes of problematic behavior; work individually with every child and do not follow various patterns; do not punish, but encourage; find out how to use practically the best of state policy