According to the World Health Organization, Belarus is one the five European countries with the highest number of murders in the age group from 10 to 29 years. First place was taken by Russia (15.85 incidents of violence per 100 thousand people), the second — Albania (11.2), the third — Kazakhstan (10,66), the fourth — Ukraine (6,31). Belarus took the fifth place — 5,6 homicides among young people per 100 thousand inhabitants.
According to the «European report on the prevention of violence and crime among young people», which was introduced by the WHO, violence is among the three leading causes of death in Europe among people aged 10-29 years. Each day 40 young people (over 15 thousand people per year) die of violence in Europe. About 40% of these killings are committed with knives and other edged weapons. Approximately 80% of those killed are men.
Nine out of ten killings occur in the countries with low and middle income. Low-income young people even from the economically developed countries are at greater risk of violence, the document says, the UDF site informs.
WHO specialists’ assessments suggest that there are 20 hospitalized young man per each killed one.
WHO experts concluded that the young people are both aggressors and victims. The origins of many cases of violence are in a difficult childhood and aggressive behavior of young people are often generated by bullying at school and at home. There is also a strong link between violence and alcohol, drugs, possession of weapons, the authors of the report believes.
As the researchers say, least of all young people die in Germany (0.47 per 100 thousand inhabitants), Armenia (0.5) and Austria (0,54).
Director of the World Health Organization’s Regional Office for Europe Zsuzsanna Jakab believes that reducing levels of violence among young people can be done by learning from successful experiences of European countries. Experts estimate that it would have been possible to save 13 thousand young Europeans this year, if all the countries have taken appropriate measures to reduce the amount of violence.
