Fewer thugs, more violence, student survey indicates

A nationwide survey points to a greater intensity in violent conflicts among teenagers and an increase in digital bullying. 

The 2022 survey of 6,250 students aged 11, 13 and 15 by the Costas Stefanis Research University Institute of Mental Health, Neurosciences and Precision Medicine showed that one in three (30.7%) had been involved in a violent incident in the past year. 

“Over the last eight years, the percentage of teenagers who report being involved in fights has been decreasing, and in 2022 it reached the lowest of the last 20 years,” Anastasios Fotiou, the scientific leader of the study, told Kathimerini.

“Those who claim to be perpetrators are fewer in number, but they exhibit worse forms of violence,” he explains, noting teen exposure through social media to videos of brutal violence and trap music, reproducing racist and homophobic rhetoric and violent discourse within the family.