IAS expresses concerns about ‘youth delinquency’

The Social Welfare Bureau (IAS) has said it is concerned with what they called a growing trend of delinquency practiced by young people in Macau.

In an interview with the public broadcaster, TDM, IAS’s Chief of Unit of Supportive Services to Court, Ieong Ka Ian, said that in the past five years (2019 to 2023) authorities followed up on 114 cases of offenses committed by children under the age of 12 years old.

In the majority, the cases involved bodily harm, shop theft, vandalism, and arson.
She remarked that most ended up with court verdicts calling for general social protection measures under the assistance of IAS.

Ieong noted that IAS has been preparing many social protection plans for children and regularly submits reports to the court on the many cases that have been addressed.

Still, she noted that in all the cases that occurred in the past five years, there were no repeat offenders during the follow-up period by the authorities and only one of the children was sentenced to be institutionalized in a children and youth facility.
During the stay, a regular lifestyle was established, and with the help of their parents, this child improved significantly and has now returned to normal life.

She said that the first procedure when a child of such a young age is found to be performing illegal acts is to raise the transgression within the family, reminding them of the consequences of breaking the law and the need for parents to strengthen their supervision over their children.

She noted that, in all the cases, the children, although young, were well aware of their wrongdoings and displayed regret about their behavior. Ieong also said that parents have proven cooperative with follow-up measures.

The IAS official added that after an increase in the first years, there has been some stabilization in the number of reported cases, through the assistance of IAS, in the past three years.

According to IAS, the number of cases is higher in the age range between 12 and 16 years old, where IAS had the pay intervention in a total of 653 cases.

In this age group, IAS also noted that there is a 3% rate of recidivism over two years after the assistance paid by IAS.