SPOTLIGHT
Juvenile care workers are taking a new approach and using new ideas to help some of the youths in institutions get their lives on track, writes Piyaporn Wongruang
The rising number of young people engaging in crime or wild acts like motorbike street racing has forced juvenile care officials to take a more novel approach to correcting their behaviour.
Last month, street racers who were arrested and sent to Metta Remand Home were challenged to think hard about how students who have disabilities or are poor can overcome their hardship without causing problems for other people.
Having to ponder such a question may not cause immediate changes in these young offenders' behaviour, but senior juvenile care officials hope it will at least stir their conscience, and maybe help put them back on the right track.
The Juvenile Observation and Protection Department, under the Justice Ministry, is responsible for the care of young offenders in juvenile detention centres.
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| Teenagers arrested early this year take part in a therapy session. |
Department deputy chief Tawatchai Thaikyo said the number of youths drawn to acts of wild misconduct is growing steadily.
In the past, most young offenders were committed for crimes such as theft and physical and sexual assault.
But since 2004, at least 22 groups of youngsters engaging in wild behaviour have been committed to the centre. Each group has from 10 to more than 100 members.
A departmental study found that 30% of these young hooligans have no education and are jobless, and another 30% have only a poor education. The findings raise concerns these youngsters will commit more serious crimes in the future.
Mr Tawatchai said these young offenders tend to fall into the category of a "nobody child" - children with no self-esteem and no confidence.
Within this stereotype, they tend to demand love and respect from others, particularly from friends in their group - and readily embrace any wild act likely to win this attention.
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| Youths take to the road in an illegal motorcycle race. |
"Public brawling and street racing reflect excitement and challenge for teenagers, but these acts often go too far and pose a threat to others," said Mr Tawatchai.
In order to correct the youngsters' wild behaviour, the department has developed a programme inspired by the "shock therapy" used successfully in other countries.
Mr Tawatchai said juvenile care officials studied examples from a number of countries before launching the programme here a few years ago.
Targeted young offenders serving up to five years in a detention centre are put through an intensive five-day military-style discipline training programme.
The youngsters are also encouraged to think about solutions to a range of situations.
For instance, they will be asked what they would do if a family member is injured or killed in a bike accident.
The goal of this session is to challenge their thinking, to make them more critical of acts similar to their own offences.
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| A participant in the programme is embraced by his relative. |
"The main question is how we can help these youngsters think, to be more aware of their own actions and care more about others," said Mr Tawatchai.
So far, 20 youth groups have gone through the programme.
Kanokwan Sritoomma, a psychologist from the department, said the programme involved group participation, which stimulates a sense of responsibility among the participants.
Family members of the young offenders as well as their teachers will be invited to observe and join the programme too, Ms Kanokwan said.
"Sometimes, youngsters cannot think beyond their actions and slide into incorrect behaviour," said Ms Kanokwan.
"By participating in the programme, these youngsters may take some time to think about what they did and learn about how other people think.
"The rest depends on their environment, whether it will help improve these youngsters."
Thicha Na Nakorn, director of Ban Kanchanaphisek detention centre, which has pioneered a life learning approach among young offenders, said it was never easy to work with youngsters' attitudes and mindsets. The programme has only a very limited time to achieve its goal and ideally should run for a longer period to allow the targeted offenders to work on their thoughts.
Youngsters involved in such activities should not be stigmatised as bad children who disturb others, but teens who need space to show their talents. Through such an attitude all those involved would be able to see more choices for dealing with these troubled children.
"It's not like we will allocate a street for youngsters to show their talent for racing, but we will give them proper space to demonstrate their talents, with them taking a part in developing the ideas in the first place.
"In this way I believe that our youth will be able to pass this challenging time in their lives in a more peaceful way. But we first have to make ourselves believe that those children are not bad people," said Ms Thicha.
Mr Tawatchai is also thinking of how the programme can be improved. In the end, the country's youth problems need to be viewed from a wider perspective, to be analysed and more appropriate solutions identified, as the problems have become more and more complex, he said.
A priority should be the assessment of the youth situation nationwide so that concerned parties will be able to properly address the problems and come up with better solutions.
"The youth problem is no longer just one person's problem, but a problem for all of us," said Mr Tawatchai.
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