Training police officers in dealing with juvenile delinquency and victimization

The United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Administration of Juvenile Justice (The Beiijing Rule)s are very explicit to the specialisation required within law enforcement agencies in relation to juveniles. Rule 16 states that juvenile justice services must be systematically developed and coordinated with a view to improving and sustaining the competence of personnel involved in the services, including their methods, approaches and attitudes. Rule 12 draws attention to the need for specialised training for all law enforcement official who are involved in the administration of juvenile justice. Law enforcement units specialised in all aspects of juvenile delinquency would therefore be indispensable, not only for the implementation of specific principles contained in The Beijing Rules, but also more generally to improve the prevention and control of juvenile crime and the handling of juvenile offenders. All these rules are incorporated in the new Croatian Criminal Law which came into force on January 1, 1998. Regarding the legal obligation as well as the complexity and importance of police work with juveniles, The Croatian Ministry of the Interior in 2000 started the specialization in the field. The aim of the course is to coordinate the theoretical knowledge and practical skills of criminal police officers with international and legal standards of dealing with juvenile perpetrators and victims of crime. The community beat officers hold the greatest potential for providing a meaningful, sustained and preventive response to juvenile deviance, crime and victimization at the local level. However, their work is frequently unfocused, partly because of their insufficient training in the field. How to deal with controversial issues in the course of the specialization of criminal police officers, and do we need better educated patrol officers, are,questions to be discussed.