Children’s victimisation in Lithuania: context, forms and prevalence

ENChildren’s victimisation is one of the indicators of the child’s rights situation in a country. This chapter focuses on recorded children’s criminal victimisation and their latent victimisation in Lithuania. The authors first briefly look at the changing social context since the 1990s. On the one hand, growing economic welfare and decreasing overall crime rates seem to be laying the foundations for a safer and better life for all residents and children, too. On the other hand, an ageing society, growing divorce rates, and accelerating adolescents’ involvement in cyberspace open new potential sources of insecurity. Secondly, the chapter focuses on registered criminal victimisation of Lithuanian children, noting that though general registered numbers of victimised children are decreasing, the forms of crime children are exposed to are of a dangerous nature. Most children experience physical or sexual violence, and adults from their close environment are the perpetrators in the majority of cases. Thirdly, the authors present the quantitative data from youth delinquency and victimisation surveys that revealed the high latency of children’s victimisation. Victimisation survey data showed that cyberbullying, theft, and parental violence are those infringements that most commonly affect children and are often underreported or unreported.