Protecting Children from Emotional Trauma: Vitebsk Police Officers Share How They Try to Protect Children

On June 19 , Belarus will celebrate the 90th anniversary of the establishment of the Juvenile Affairs Inspectorate (JAI). Initially, this service was designed to help homeless and abandoned children who had become orphans and to prevent rampant juvenile delinquency. Today, the inspectors see their main task as helping children in difficult situations and those who have turned to crime. Olga Chernyavskaya, HEAD of the JAI of the Pervomaisky District Department of Internal Affairs in Vitebsk, explained on the eve of the professional holiday howThe police work closely with education and healthcare agencies to help children find their way in life and avoid temptations that could lead to irreparable consequences.
The inspectorate has 15 officers, and their responsibilities are children from the city's largest district. In the Vitebsk region, they have the largest coverage of district inspectorates—approximately 40,000 people. "Our officers are all qualified and up to the task," emphasized Olga Chernyavskaya.

Law enforcement agencies are currently primarily monitoring children who have either committed offenses or live in families that meet the criteria for socially dangerous situations. "Our police officers at the Juvenile Affairs Department have a fairly narrow specialization, and we must first and foremost protect the legal rights and interests of children. This happens, for example, when parents or guardians misbehave with minors. In our district, there are approximately 160 families with signs of family dysfunction. It's important to note that it's not just us who work with them, but also educational institutions and employment agencies. And here, we primarily have to influence adults who drink, refuse to find work, and lead an antisocial lifestyle. This is the most difficult task for each preventative measure, because while children are more likely to respond to positive examples, it's more difficult to rehabilitate established parents," said the head of the Juvenile Affairs Department.
Olga Chernyavskaya noted that the last resort in cases where a child's HEALTH or life is threatened is removal from the family. Many parents, precisely when their child is taken away, have a new perspective and begin to understand how far they've sunk and how easy it is to lose their own child. During the six months that the children are in state care, their parents have a chance to improve, find work, get their home in order, undergo ALCOHOL treatment, and begin a normal life. They receive regular visits from prevention agencies, including police, to see if the children can be returned to their current environment.

"The most terrible thing, perhaps, when we remove minors from their families is the shock and stress for the child. It's a very severe emotional trauma, because they see that their parents don't need them, that they don't even fight for them. And to protect children from such severe trauma, we conduct long and methodical work with their parents. We rarely resort to extreme measures, but it always becomes the most unpleasant moment for all of us. Children"They cry, scream, and ask for their mother, whoever she is, because for them, she is the closest person. I really hope every family understands that it's unacceptable to go to this extreme. The state will take responsibility for raising young citizens, but who will share maternal warmth with them and monitor their daughter or son's every success? Only the parents. We often tell adults that a child is not a toy to be given away, but the responsibility of every parent and an individual who needs to be set a positive example," Olga Chernyavskaya emphasized.
In the Pervomaisky district of Vitebsk, there are 250 children who have committed some kind of delinquent act. "We are conducting individual preventive work (IPW) with them." "Meetings with law enforcement officers and specialists from various fields, who talk about the legal framework and opportunities for young people to channel their energy positively," shared the head of the Juvenile Affairs Department.

Due to the high number of minors in the Pervomaisky District, juvenile affairs department inspectors try to gather as many schoolchildren and college students as possible for preventive events. The larger the audience, the more likely it is that someone will hear, see, tell their peers, and stop at the moment when they might commit some kind of illegal act. For young people at the IPR, they organize teleconferences with inmates in correctional facilities, who talk about their fates, what prompted them to commit crime, and what it's like to live out their best years behind bars. The young people always raise many questions, even asking about what prisoners eat. Colleges also hold mobile COURT hearings, where a friend or classmate serves as the defendant.
"After such hearings, we "We're watching how the kids react. There are some who don't believe this is a real trial and that a guy or girl who went to school with them will be sent straight from the courtroom to prison. We stop them and explain that everything is real, just like the sentence the defendant received. Maybe it's the influence of social media, movies, or something else, but the kids don't understand what a crime is until they find themselves in the dock. The sentences are real, and the ruined lives are real too," Olga Chernyavskaya emphasized.

The head of the Juvenile Affairs Department noted that, fortunately, many kids reform, their minds change, and a year after their offense, they are removed from the IPR. However, there are also isolated cases whereThe care of adults and the assistance of police officers are ignored. The inspectorate also has a story of one young man from Vitebsk being placed in a specialized educational institution twice. There, children who are resistant to change in their normal environment study and participate in various activities, but all this takes place in a closed area, without gadgets or internet access.

"As a rule, we receive very positive feedback from there, and the children then return home. In fairly strict and rather limited conditions, where they have only the bare necessities, minors learn to make do with what they have. Many understand that the pursuit of fancy phones or expensive clothes is merely an imposed value; friendship, respect, and parental love are more important," said Olga Chernyavskaya.
Recently, youth have increasingly been drawn into drug-related crimes, a problem that not only the police but also schools, colleges, and universities are working to address. In Vitebsk's Pervomaisky District, statistics are encouraging – since the beginning of the year, not a single minor has been registered in this horrific cycle of evil. "We'd really like to believe that our interdepartmental preventative work has had an impact . We hope that these kids have finally realized that dealing with illegal substances isn't just bad, it's destructive," shared the head of the Juvenile Affairs Department.

She added that last year, five kids in the district were caught using or distributing drugs. However, police officers aren't trying to create a typical profile of a young drug courier, as they include children from both middle-income and upper-income families. Some need a fancy phone, others need money for entertainment and to show off in front of their peers. Ultimately, they end up in correctional facilities for 12-15 years, and even with amnesty or the opportunity to be released early, they return to society without an education, social connections, or skills.
"While naive drug trafficking participants sit behind bars, the world changes. Prisoners emerge psychologically almost the same teenagers they were when they entered court . They have to catch up, master new technologies, and often become lost in this world and begin to abuse alcohol. That's why we always urge young people not to make mistakes that can't be corrected, like a misspelled word in a notebook. The law is no joke, and it needs to be memorized even better than the multiplication tables," said Olga Chernyavskaya.

Alesya PUSHNYAKOVA,
photo: Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee Department of Internal Affairs,
BELTA.