Fundamental characteristics of juvenile delinquency

Juvenile delinquency represents a serious social problem, and as such should be understood by society, considering the seriousness, importance, danger, and long-term consequences that this problem can have. Crime as a negative phenomenon has always aroused the interest of society because through criminal actions the most basic goods of humanity are damaged. It is undeniable that today crime is a fundamental problem that society must face to prevent it. Criminality as a negative social phenomenon is not only characteristic of the adult population, but often also minors appear as actors of criminal behaviour (Sahiti and Murati, 2013). The problem becomes even greater when minors appear as perpetrators of criminal acts, due to their specific age and not fully formed personality. In this context, juvenile delinquency is a sensitive and delicate phenomenon for many reasons. Minors who still do not understand and weigh their actions sufficiently are presented as actors of delinquent behaviour, for that reason they are more likely to fall into conflict situations more often. When we treat juvenile delinquency as a problem and try to solve it in the most efficient and useful way, we must consider many other factors that have a dominant role in juvenile delinquency and thus the delinquency of minors is presented to us as a chain of problems in the links of which there are many factors that require solutions. Juvenile criminality is an integral part of general criminality. However, due to the age of minors as well as many other characteristics - sociological, psychological, criminological - political, legal, etc., minor perpetrators of criminal offenses have a more lenient, more favourable treatment compared to major criminal perpetrators (Salihu, 2018). Adolescence is that stage of a person’s life, in which he is formed, and which is accompanied by a large number and variety of physiological and psychological changes. Minors as an integral part of society represent a relatively special world, with special ways and special reactions to the external world’s stimuli. Therefore, special care should be taken in dealing with them, both when undertaking preventive and repressive measures. Young people are the future of a society, and with this in mind every society is interested in creating better conditions for life to enable young people to grow and develop properly, resulting in a healthy and capable youth to face life’s challenges.