The Ministry of the Interior is planning a three-tier strategy to combat a trend of growing adolescent crime, which would involve multiple agencies across different tiers, the ministry said during the weekly Executive Yuan meeting yesterday.
Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) pledged to spend NT$7.6 billion (US$231.8 million) over four years until 2028 to prevent adolescent crime.
The ministry report said that adolescent crime over the past decade has grown, with most perpetrators aged between 15 and 18.
Photo courtesy of the Executive Yuan
Fraud is the primary type of crime among this group, the ministry said.
The proposed three-tier strategy aims to reduce how families, the economy and peers influence adolescents to commit criminal behavior.
“Adolescents aged 15 to 18 are more prone to joining criminal organizations if they do not continue their studies,” Executive Yuan spokesperson Michelle Lee (李慧芝) quoted Cho as saying during the meeting.
He also instructed relevant agencies to track the whereabouts and performance of young people in an attempt to prevent them — especially those from disadvantaged families — from being involved with criminal organizations, she said.
Government agencies should step up measures to work together to ensure the policy’s realization, Lee quoted the premier as saying.
Cho tapped Vice Premier Cheng Li-chun (鄭麗君) and ministers without portfolio Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) and Shih Che (史哲) to work with competent authorities, and draft laws and regulations that would provide a legal basis for organizations to care for and offer consultation to adolescents, she said.
According to National Police Agency Deputy Director-General Chen Yung-li (陳永利), the first tier would focus on spreading information targeting adolescents to avoid criminal behaviors.
The second tier would focus on adolescents with a history of errant behavior and step up consultations or visits to their families to encourage them to support the individual in question, Chen Yung-li said.
The final tier would focus on young people with a criminal history and help protect them, he said.
Such measures would also offer correctional education to prevent them from becoming repeat offenders, he added.
Ultimately, the goal is to reduce the number of young people breaking the law by 1 percent each year, Chen Yung-li said.
Additional reporting by Chung Li-hua
WANG RELEASED: A police investigation showed that an organized crime group allegedly taught their clients how to pretend to be sick during medical exams Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) and 11 others were released on bail yesterday, after being questioned for allegedly dodging compulsory military service or forging documents to help others avoid serving. Wang, 33, was catapulted into stardom for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代). Lately, he has been focusing on developing his entertainment career in China. The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last month began investigating an organized crime group that is allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified documents. Police in New Taipei City Yonghe Precinct at the end of last month arrested the main suspect,
Eleven people, including actor Darren Wang (王大陸), were taken into custody today for questioning regarding the evasion of compulsory military service and document forgery, the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said. Eight of the people, including Wang, are suspected of evading military service, while three are suspected of forging medical documents to assist them, the report said. They are all being questioned by police and would later be transferred to the prosecutors’ office for further investigation. Three men surnamed Lee (李), Chang (張) and Lin (林) are suspected of improperly assisting conscripts in changing their military classification from “stand-by
LITTORAL REGIMENTS: The US Marine Corps is transitioning to an ‘island hopping’ strategy to counterattack Beijing’s area denial strategy The US Marine Corps (USMC) has introduced new anti-drone systems to bolster air defense in the Pacific island chain amid growing Chinese military influence in the region, The Telegraph reported on Sunday. The new Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS) Mk 1 is being developed to counter “the growing menace of unmanned aerial systems,” it cited the Marine Corps as saying. China has constructed a powerful defense mechanism in the Pacific Ocean west of the first island chain by deploying weapons such as rockets, submarines and anti-ship missiles — which is part of its anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) strategy against adversaries — the
Former Taiwan People’s Party chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) may apply to visit home following the death of his father this morning, the Taipei Detention Center said. Ko’s father, Ko Cheng-fa (柯承發), passed away at 8:40am today at the Hsinchu branch of National Taiwan University Hospital. He was 94 years old. The center said Ko Wen-je was welcome to apply, but declined to say whether it had already received an application. The center also provides psychological counseling to people in detention as needed, it added, also declining to comment on Ko Wen-je’s mental state. Ko Wen-je is being held in detention as he awaits trial
RSS