By: Reginiana Dosvia Quiko

Taba Gemantung, is a village in Merigi Sakti District, Central Bengkulu regency, 17 kms away from Bengkulu University. This village became one activity point for the Multiplication of Stube-HEMAT in Bengkulu. This time, Reginiana Dosvia Quiko (a Christian instructor in Taba Gemantung village) played a role as the discussion coordinator for the community and the village youth. The discussion is expected to be a forum for Stube-HEMAT students of Bengkulu University (UNIB) to actualize themselves with the youth there.

The discussion spotlighted the problem of juvenile delinquency because it becomes a problem commonly found in society. Adolescence is a time for the youth to find identity and try to show self-identity so that they can be accepted and seen as special by others. However, they sometimes did the wrong way to determine their identity for them because of several factors. Therefore, the Multiplication of Stube-HEMAT in Bengkulu through Stube HEMAT activists in Taba Gemantung village held a discussion with youth to address these problems. The discussion also aimed to encourage youth to take part in minimalizing juvenile delinquency cases in their village.

The discussion was held in 2 rounds in May 2021. The first discussion (Sunday, May 9, 2021) learned the definition of juvenile delinquency, found out the roots of delinquency, and designed a program to educate teenagers to have characters that match society's norms. Juvenile delinquency has a meaning of actions that violate the norms, rules, or laws of society, that are conducted by someone in their teens or transition from childhood to adulthood.

Some of the factors that cause delinquency are 1). Identity crisis, adolescents do not know who they are and try to get recognition from others by taking actions that are considered great but inappropriate. 2). The environment becomes an influence when a child is unable to control himself and drifted away, or a child is unable to say "no" even though he knows it is wrong for fear of not being acknowledged in his community. Further, access to the cyber world is easily browsed and it possibly brings negative impacts without appropriate filters.

The second round of discussion (Sunday, 16/05/2021) talked about other factors of juvenile delinquency, which included: 1). Family economic conditions. Children have no other choice but to violate legal norms in order to get what they need in life, for example by committing theft, robbery, drug dealers, and so on. 2). Lack of affection. Lack of affection drives children to do wrong actions to get attention from others. 3). Lack of character building. Character building can be obtained from the role of parents and religious teachers. This is important because good character will lead children away from the desire to commit juvenile delinquency.

During the question and answer session, several questions were discussed, namely ‘What kind of juvenile delinquency act have you met in the village environment?’ and ‘As a good youth, what can be done to overcome the problem of juvenile delinquency?’ From the discussion, the participants concluded decisions and commitment, such as 1). Youth play role as models for teenagers in their daily lives; 2). Carry out positive activities such as sports activities in the afternoon for the community so that teenagers are motivated to develop their sport potency; 3). Provide character-building once a week for teenagers by submitting an application to village officials to use village building facilities as a place for youth gathering; 4). Do not hesitate to be a peer counselor for other youth.

The discussion with the youth ran well and the participants took active responses and had positive thoughts to produce good influences for others.***