Crimes perpetrated by youth under 18 constituted 49.7 percent, or 1,270, of 2,555 crimes recorded in Madina during 2009, according to Madina's Urban Observatory. This was revealed in a speech by the observatory's secretary general Eng. Hatem Taha, at a workshop on protecting the youth in the Middle East and North Africa, held at the Prince Sultan Center for the Disabled on Tuesday. Taha said there are 461,418 children in Madina, which includes 290,000 between the ages of 15 and 16. This represents 43 percent of the city's population, he said. He added that 16 percent of them are living below the poverty line while 12 percent are not enrolled in schools.
