Act early, even very early.
Mantes-la-Jolie (Yvelines) has just announced the creation of a group intended to address the risks of young adults and children becoming entrenched in delinquency.
The city does not avoid the taboo of age: minors under 12 years old, or even younger, are concerned.
Municipal services are based on a report whose content was revealed this Monday.
Led by a specialized firm, the 126-page document discusses “the increasingly frequent involvement of the 8-12 year old age group in disruptive or violent behavior”.
“Prevention actors deplore an absence of parents, whether they have resigned or are powerless,” we can read.
An observation shared by the judicial authorities, elected officials and the police, according to whom problematic situations appear earlier and earlier.
Sometimes from primary school.
“However, the earlier we take these children into care, the more we increase the chances of helping them,” explains Mayor (DVD) Raphaël Cognet.
“Below 13, we can’t do anything”
The principle lies in dialogue.
“The idea,” continues the elected official, “is to regularly bring everyone together around a table and discuss problematic cases, by name, with the actors concerned: municipal and national police but also heads of educational establishments , youth service, prevention structures… This is what we could do in the past but in an artisanal way, with fewer partners and without mentioning specific people.
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This new framework also offers a response to the judicial blind spot: “Let's say things clearly: under the age of 13, we can do nothing,” explains Maryvonne Caillibotte, public prosecutor in Versailles.
However, there is something to be resolved for the young person himself but also to prevent delinquency from spreading within families.
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12,000 inhabitants are under 18 years old
Recent news provides strong support for the opportunity to create this “group for monitoring and processing individual situations”.
Friday evening, a 3-year-old child was discovered wandering in the street, without a parent nearby, thanks to the vigilance of a city mediator.
The latter then alerted the municipal police.
“In this specific case, we could get together and see if something is wrong or not in this family.
Then possibly imagine protective measures in the event of a proven problem,” explains Raphaël Cognet.
National Education will obviously play an essential role in triggering alerts and providing educational support for children.
This group will meet every “six to eight weeks” at city hall, starting in March.
Even if Mantes-la-Jolie displays relatively low juvenile delinquency compared to other municipalities in the same stratum, with an involvement rate of “only” 13%, the preventive challenge is enormous in statistical terms.
Among the city's 44,000 inhabitants, 12,000 of them are under 18 years old.