New Approach to Youth Crime

Ulukbu Amirova reports from Batken region, where police say the teaching centre, set up in April, is already helping cut the youth crime figures.



Experts interviewed for the story agreed that young offenders generally come from homes where insufficient attention is paid to bringing them up. In some cases, the parents are divorced, while in others they are away working in Russia like so many adults in southern Kyrgyzstan.



The Batken centre is being run as a one-year pilot project, but the donor, the United Nations children’s agency UNICEF, says the Kyrgyz government is prepared will back the creation of more of them around the country if this one is a success.