The teen robbers’ army

Teen robbers steal everything that converts into money, from jewels and wallets to manhole covers or any metal object to be sold as scrap. The police report several arrests throughout the country, for the pettiest thefts to the most sophisticated crimes.

Facing this increase of the crime figures and the state’s inability to shelter all of them in prisons, the justice system has decided to apply Probation Services.

“There are 343 execution orders that are being supervised by the Probation Service. 251 is the total number of sentenced teens that have made robberies in cooperation with others and attempted robberies in cooperation”, declared Erjon Duka, inspector at the Probation Service Directory.

The Chief of Public Order at the Tirana Police, Lorenc Shehu, confirms that the young ages deriving from problematic families are an issue.

“They come from different categories, but mostly from families with social problems and that do not go to school. Most of the robberies are carried out in markets and other public places”, Shehu declared.

The legal psychology expert, Arjana Mucaj, declared that this phenomenon is increasing for several causes.

“This entire situation is consequence of a social policy that has left no spaces to these children, for them to receive culture or to be engaged in other activities. The society must work with these teenagers later, to find them a decent place in the society. I would say that these social problems mainly derive from poverty. This is the key element that our society is experiencing today. I’m speaking about families that are unable to secure the daily food, and the children have the responsibility to find income for the family”, Mucaj declared.

Uneducated, without a profession and often without parent control, a new generation is turning into an army of robbers, with premises to be implicated in the future in more serious crimes.

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