Children are the future. Yes, this might sound cliche, but it is the truth. They are the future creators, teachers, innovators and mathematicians. They all have the power to either make our society evolve or disintegrate. That is why it is so important that they are educated, that they spend their time doing things that will make them grow as human beings.

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But for children in Peru it is not necessarily the case; the circumstances they’re exposed to could drive them to juvenile delinquency. This not only labels their future and affects the community they’re in. It causes an increase in violence, fear and lack of security in the community and drowns the children with negative values such as dishonesty. But the worst of all consequences is that it destroys their childhood. Their worries no longer become about who’s turn it is to act as the hero, but about what they should do in order to prevent being caught. But why? Why do they deviate from their paths and fall into juvenile delinquency?

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Sometimes it’s because the children find themselves in a situation of extreme poverty and they are in desperate need of money. Therefore, the person is more vulnerable to taking the wrong shortcuts which could lead to falling into other problems such as drug addiction, alcoholism and might sometimes end in suicide. Other times it’s lack of education. Not only does not being educated in terms of academics affect delinquency, but when children are not in school and they need to somehow do something with their lives (and economically support their families in some cases) then they are more vulnerable to being in situations that could lead to violence. On the other hand, the huge separation between social classes make children feel resentful towards these differences and this feeling of resentment might elevate aggressiveness. Another huge problem are the parents and other family members. The family is the nucleus of the society. Yet, the ones that play a huge role in a child’s decision, are not always present or the best example either. They sometimes don’t supervise the child or are in constant conflict, making the child believe that it is normal. If the parent-child relationship isn’t strong either this won’t emotionally prepare the child. Moreover, some children are psychologically weak because they have been mistreated or abandoned. The people involved in delinquency take advantage of these emotionally weak children and make them do specific delinquent tasks and little by little they start getting more involved (it might start with drug dealing by placing the drugs inside their bodies). They look for “friends” on the streets and due to the fact that they are not correctly guided, they might be tricked into mixing up their moral beliefs.

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And the saddest part is that Peru is not moving forward.  In the past the amount of youth detained was about 10 per day, but lately it has increased to 10 per hour. The statistic released by the judicial power on April of 2015 states that there are 1,287 juveniles detained because of stealing, 509 because of rape, 89 because they had a firearm and 4 for kidnapping. Is this normal? Should children be exposed to this? I don’t believe so, but it’s the reality.

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That is why the government and other entities are making laws in order to help mitigate  delinquency. There have been 408 modifications to the sentencing body (Código Penal Peruano) from April 8 1991 to December 2012. From these, 73.4% were about modifying laws in order to make them more severe and drastic, 22% were about incorporating new conducts and 4.5% were to change them.In the last 5 years (2006-2011) crimes against the criminal code have been modified 16 times and 87.5% of the time it was to make the penalties more severe. Nevertheless, there are no laws that prevent juvenile delinquency. Why? Because this is not convenient for the lawyers, due to the fact that they are paid to solve the problem, not prevent it. (Controversies like these are the ones that don’t allow our country to evolve.)

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The truth is that the government believes that incrementing the consequences will make them more successful and will make teenagers follow them because they will take into consideration the consequences. But this is not necessarily the case, in the last fifty years penalties have increased and become more severe and the amount of causes related to juvenile delinquency have increased as well. There is an overproduction of laws and the worst part is that no one respects them.

That is why the solution is prevention. This doesn’t only mean that there should be programs established in order to help the children persevere and prevent them from falling into these delinquent tendencies, but it also means that in order for a child to persevere in life he/she must have a strong emotional base. For instance, the focus in academic education are facts and figures. But not everything is math. We have left behind the fact that in order to progress as a country we must coexist, and in order to coexist we must harvest peace within ourselves. We have left behind the importance of a strong moral and emotional intelligence. This is why children must be helped emotionally and internally in order to succeed externally, because it is where everything begins. They must be helped through sports, through arts… they must express themselves somehow. That is why communities should enhance these solutions and put them into work.