Theft, drug abuse most common among juveniles

Friday May 11, 2012

KUCHING: Theft and drug abuse are the top offences committed by juveniles in Sarawak.

This was revealed by Youth Development Assistant Minister Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah.

He said last year, 157 theft cases involving juveniles were recorded in Sarawak compared with 147 in 2010.Until April this year, 56 theft cases involving children were reported.

Abdul Karim said 89 students were tested positive for drugs in the first four months of this year.

He, however, did not have the 2010 and 2011 figures as urine tests were never conducted in school before early this year, but said the most common drug used by students was syabu.

“Although both theft and drug abuse cases are considered low, it is still a concern for us because most of them are students.

“We acknowledged the seriousness of the matter if left unchecked and therefore it has to be tackled with no delay,” he said after chairing the first Juvenile Crime Prevention brainstorming session here yesterday.

The brainstorming involved all the relevant government departments and agencies, including the education department, police and national anti-drug agency.

Abdul Karim said from now on, the state Juvenile Crime Prevention Committee would be compiling data from the various agencies and from the databank, they would identify and analyse the problem for necessary action to be taken.

He said for a start, the committee would create a databank for Kuching before doing the same in other divisions.

He said based on the feedback gathered in yesterday’s brainstorming, arrests of juveniles were made on account of violent, disorderly conduct and simple assault aside from theft and drug abuse.

He said violence among juveniles in the state, however, had dropped from 131 cases in 2010 to 82 in 2011.

Some 22 cases of juvenile violence were reported in the first four months of this year.

Statistics for other types of offences were not available at press time.