Vietnamese experts and their peers from UNICEF and the non-governmental organisation Plan are working on models to prevent juvenile crime at a symposium held in Hanoi on October 27.

Present at the event, Deputy Justice Minister Hoang The Lien said he hoped the experts would show teenagers effective ways to live within the law, at a time when juvenile crimes have been on an alarming rise recently.

Under a child protection programme signed between the Vietnamese Government and UNICEF, officials from the Vietnamese Justice Ministry, UNICEF and Plan Vietnam have already coordinated in re-examining juvenile crime-related laws, policies and preventive models to systematise them.

The lack of interaction between children and adults as among the factors that double the risk of adolescents committing crimes, experts said.

They underscored the necessity to mainstream juvenile crime preventive activities and other forms of prevention giving equal importance to both the theoretical and practical aspects of the issue./.