Youth crime on the rise in Czechia, suicide second leading cause of death under 24

Crime among children and adolescents in Czechia increased by 33 percent between 2021 and 2024, while suicide has become the second most common cause of death among people under 24, Interior Minister Vít Rakušan (Mayors and Independents) announced at a press conference following a meeting of interior ministers of the Salzburg Forum in Valtice.

One of the forum’s key topics was the rise in youth violence and ways in which individual states are addressing the problem. Minister Rakušan presented the Czech project Safe Childhood, which introduces a comprehensive, systematic, and unified approach to preventing violence. He also discussed with his counterparts how to design preventive programs for scenarios involving crimes on campus.