By Suchada Tupchai
Throughout the past week, senior judges in the family
and juvenile court system met in Chonburi to discuss case studies and
methods on how to deal with youth related crime. This was a nationwide
meeting that saw over 200 officials in attendance.
Charnchai Lichitchitata, deputy chief of the Dika Court,
the supreme judicature of Thailand, addressed the meeting with frightening
figures. “The statistics are of great concern. The problems in the youth
sector are on the increase, specifically in the areas of child
prostitution, gambling, drugs and petty crime. All these have shown to lead
to more serious offences in the future.”
He also cited that circumstances and environmental
conditions strongly influenced youth crime through poverty and family
problems.
“The problem is not restricted to Thailand. In many
other more developed nations the daily increase of youth crime is reaching
epidemic proportions,” said Charnchai, who also announced the various
actions taken by these countries to curb the increase.
It is time for us, the adults, to face the issues
concerning our youth and not view them as a problem. They are society’s
future adults. We must be strong in our family values as a nation and
measure ourselves up for the task. We must also preserve Buddhist values by
encouraging the children to visit temples and learn. We must allow the
youth to think, encourage them to do so, and have the courage to act
accordingly. Curb the promotion of pornographic literature and carefully
safeguard the use of the internet in order not to encourage young minds to
stray off the path of learning and social and moral values.
But are we as a society ready to do that?
