‘We Are Your Children Too’

Ramiz Kadić, deputy mayor of Sarajevo, at a recent conference on juvenile crime in Bosnia

I attended a conference about juvenile offenders and crime – pointedly entitled ‘And We Are Your Children Too’ – in Sarajevo in mid-June. Speakers gave some insights into and possible solutions to youth offending, but there’s a very long way to go before anyone in Bosnia will be heard saying ‘mission accomplished’.

Ramiz Kadić, the deputy mayor of Sarajevo, offered some rather dispiriting statistics.

“At this very moment, there are 68,922 unemployed persons in Sarajevo Canton, 315 of them are social workers, 145 are teachers and educators and 78 have a degree in specialist psychology. If half of them could be employed, I am sure that we would be able to properly resolve this problem [youth crime] by 2015.

“We are doing as much as we can; developing a system of video monitoring at risky places [crime spots], providing fellowships for children who are deemed to be at risk [of falling into crime], summer holidays… We, as a society, cannot excuse ourselves by blaming the war for everything we have not done.

“Those times have passed by, and we must go for social reform and rebuilding of family, which is suffering the most in everyday life,” Kadić told delegates.

In a way, his was a typical speech much favoured by politicians, but it cannot be denied that Kadic’s message contained some reasonable arguments.

According to statistics published by Sarajevo Canton’s Ministry of Work, Social Affairs, Displaced Persons and Refugees, skilled social workers are suffering the highest unemployment rates and worst working conditions.
 
Silva Španjić from Sarajevo Canton’s Centre for Social Work agrees things are pretty tough for the city’s social workers, and added her own grim statistic into the mix.

“There is only one person working in the specialist youth social work field for every 60,000 citizens. It is impossible to do anything with such a miserable amount of professionals, knowing that we live in a society struggling to cope with abandoned children, broken families, the impact of migration and the negative effects of widespread drug and alcohol abuse,” she said.

Španjić later told me over the telephone that there is only one specialist youth social worker for the whole of Sarajevo’s biggest municipality, Novi Grad, which has a population of around 140,000.

Restorative justice and the use of alternative sanctions to juvenile prison and conventional punishment remain controversial in Bosnian society. With little in the way of analysis on how best to use alternative sanctions, there are few successful examples to point to.

But it’s not all doom and gloom here in the city. Some good news comes from the so-called ‘discipline centres’ – there are three in Sarajevo.
 
Perhaps the most famous one is the city’s Institute for the Education of Young Male Children and Youth, known as Hum, which has shown some progress.

Hum accommodates young boys between the ages of 14 - 18, and every one of this discipline centre’s alumni have now completed their elementary school education and there have been no incidents of reoffending during the young peoples stay at the institution.

Nikola Bender, deputy director of the institute, makes it clear that they are still experiencing troubles – mainly in terms of financing and proper upkeep and renovation of the premises, of course. Despite this, he is high-spirited and optimistic throughout the discussions.
And he needs to be.

The issue of youth crime has exercised many in Bosnia, as it appears reoffending rates are rising. Sarajevo Canton statistics for 2010 show that 38.5 per cent of offenders were minors and that those previously convicted now commit three crimes on average, compared to two crimes the year before.

Click here to read my previous blog on crime statistics in Sarajevo

The lack of political will in transition countries is often compensated by the determination, will and real efforts of some people whose passion and dedication is delivering some true results.

In Bosnia, a country of four million people with no less than 13 parliamentary bodies, there is little in the way of unified action and policy vision from the various governments and the police.  

Clearly this must change, and there are moves afoot including the drafting of new youth crime legislation, but it can do no harm to remind everyone that young offenders are not only ‘our children’ but they are our future too.

Ahmed Buric is a journalist and commentator from Sarajevo who is participating in the 2011 Balkan Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence.

He will be writing regular updates on his investigation into youth crime, reoffending and rehabilitation in the region.