Juvenile Delinquency, crime and anti social behaviour: a policy advice

By T, Staffer of De Birhan Media

04 March 2012

© (http://www.debirhan.com/)

According World Youth Report of UN, 2003 to criminologists, juvenile delinquency encompasses all public wrongs committed by young people between the ages of 12 and 20. Sociologists view the concept more broadly, believing that it covers a multitude of different violations of legal and social norms, from minor offences to serious crimes, committed by juveniles. The causes of and conditions for juvenile crime are usually found at each level of the social structure, including society as a whole, social institutions, social groups and organizations, and interpersonal relations. Some of the causes according to the Report are

Socioeconomic: Juvenile delinquency is driven by the negative consequences of social and economic development, in particular economic crises, political instability, and the weakening of major institutions (including the State, systems of public education and public assistance, and the family). Cultural:  Under such circumstances many of the common rules that deter people from committing socially unacceptable acts may lose their relevance for some members of society. Urbanisation:  Geographical analysis suggests that countries with more urbanized populations have higher registered crime rates than do those with strong rural lifestyles and communities. Dysfunctional family settings—characterized by conflict, inadequate parental control, weak internal linkages and integration, and premature autonomy—are closely associated with juvenile delinquency. Television and movies have popularized the “cult of heroes”, which promotes justice through the physical elimination of enemies. The exclusion of some people is gradually increasing with the accumulation of obstacles, ruptured social ties, unemployment and identity crises. Youth policies seldom reflect an understanding of the role of the peer group as an institution of socialization. In Africa, delinquency tends to be attributed primarily to hunger, poverty, malnutrition and unemployment, which are linked to the marginalization of juveniles in the already severely disadvantaged segments of society. Anti-social behaviour is a criminological behaviour    that threatens the physical or mental health, safety or security of individuals or causes offence or annoyance to individuals (Scottish Executive, 2005).  United Nations’ Guidelines for the Prevention of Juvenile Delinquency (The Riyadh Guidelines) adopted and proclaimed by General Assembly resolution 45/112 of 14 December 1990 focuses six major issues: family, education, community, mass media, social policy and research, policy development and coordination. 

Mungiki

Mungiki is one of the major Africa/Kenyan criminal groups that had recruited juveniles as its members and executers. IRIN reported in 2008 that this secretive, outlawed and quasi-religious group dating back to the 1980s, is an exclusively Kikuyu male membership criminal group famous in Africa and the world. Mungiki (“multitude” in Kikuyu), claimed ideological links with the anti-colonial Mau-Mau movement while rooted in the Central Province, Mungiki has a strong presence in the slums of Nairobi, where it controls and charges for access to basic services such as electricity, water and sanitation. It is alleged to have close links to senior Kikuyu politicians.  Before the current crisis, tenants moving in or out of some slums had to pay Mungiki Ksh150 (just over US$2), which soared to Ksh2,000 ($28.50) once violence broke out. The group also operates protection rackets, including in the public transport sector, confiscating the property of small businesses that refuse to pay a daily “fee”.
Mungiki also holds “trials” for people who violate its strict rules of dress or behaviour, detaining, maiming and even killing those it finds guilty.

Ethiopia's case 

Ethiopia specifically Addis Abeba, is witnessing the highest rate of crime, juvenile delinquents and anti social behaviour ever in the country’s history. These offenders can be divided into two: white collar and blue collar offenders or criminals. The White collar criminals are those  who are well organised, of affluent and well to do family backgrounds, linked to politicians/relatives of officials and mainly engaged in macro level thriving or offence.  The Blue Collars are petty offenders mostly located in villages, less organised but committing all forms of crime. Addis residents are so unsafe, helpless and defencelessly abused by their own sons, in this day and age of peaceful existence and lawfulness.  Police seem so neglectful in perusing the offenders and at times the crimes were reportedly committed by men in uniform. "Some police officers do not respond to demands of individuals who need help without money and they do not give the right treatment to the public. It is also said "the police are corrupt'" , even court records show that a third of suspects charged are acquitted and sent home, as to ethiojusticeinfo.blogspot.com. Innocent people are wrongly arrested, investigated and taken to court to be acquitted and sent home. The criminals are also released within few days without even going to court “The government and law enforcement are more worried about revolutionaries than criminals” says Zemnfes Alemu, a resident of Arada Subcity speaking to De Brihan from Addis Abeba. Therefore house break-ins, armed robbery and robbery with strangulation, suffocation, beating and snatching personal belongings, stealing stuff from cars and stealing car parts have become normalities. Girma Kassa, Deputy Commissioner of Addis Abeba police did an interview with the Reporter Newspaper last year and said compared to crimes committed in the previous year, he has not seen new crimes or an increase literally.. Grima said police stations have grown from 28 to 47 (one station for one or two Weredas) and crime prevention and investigation has grown 100%. However, the fact on the ground as the residents experience it day in day out, completely contradicts what the Deputy says.

One of white collar underworld criminal groups whose members were recently apprehended by the Addis Abeba city police is ‘Kebele 24,’ criminal gang engaged in armed robbery and other forms of organized crime in Addis Ababa.  The “Kebele 24” boys are tip of the iceberg; there are scores of organised and unorganised antisocial, criminal and delinquent gangs in Addis Abeba. The Reporter Newspaper on its editorial on 16 July 2011 wrote “there are groups which allocate a budget for their operation and have set up an organizational structure that, inter alia, is “staffed” by members which undertake public relations and media-related activities. They routinely engage in assassination, assaulting, extortion, intimidation, covering up crimes, facilitating the disappearance of wanted criminal case files as well as the cessation of criminal investigations, providing protection from prosecution for criminals, etc. They are separate from the Kebele 24.”

Similarly, the online journal, Ezega on March 2011 reported that criminal acts have reached an extraordinarily frightening level in Addis Abeba “There are an increasing number of stories of people being found dead on their way to work in the early morning. There are also increasing stories, both corroborated by the national media and rumours, of armed robberies in family homes.”

The Ethiopian youth live in one of the most despairing eras that Ethiopians ever lived. The youth, who make up over 50% of the population, suffer from joblessness, nepotism, diseases, exclusion, repression and what have you is bad. The disparity in living standards is also attributable to the increase in crimes in Addis Abeba. Few youth who in the “God Knows” way got wealth roam the city with their million dollar cars while the majority depend on less than one dollar a day and others live off others wealth; by pilfering. Families, schools, teachers, religious organisations and mainly the government take the responsibility for what we have reached now and the indiscriminate criminality. Ethiopia has a Youth Policy endorsed at the 100th FDRE Council of Ministers regular meeting that was held on March 12/2004. The Policy states it “aims at enabling youth to participate, in an organized manner, in the process of building a democratic system, good governance and development endeavours, and benefit fairly from the outcomes.” However, none of the policy has been implemented properly so far. Sadly, Ethiopia doesn’t have a Juvenile delinquency policy.  Ethiopia has currently only one juvenile justice court in the country and only one Remand Home for child offenders, both in Addis Ababa (Rakeb, no date). Until now, the Addis Abeba University has not opened criminology department and there are no local or foreign trained criminologists in the country. Community policing has proved to be a failed project in that it has been used to mole the population than serve as a hand and glove aide to the police - the public views it as “politically controlled”.

In order to fill the policy gap and shortcomings, I suggest three policy alternatives that are substantive, procedural and evidentiary. Since there is no crime, juvenile delinquency and anti social behaviour policy in Ethiopia, suggesting these alternatives becomes essential.

Alternative 1. Prevention of juvenile delinquency and anti social behaviour

Its strategies would be:

• Family education and parental skill training at home based and community 

• Intensive awareness raising courses: this has to be an ongoing process and extensively given to the community associations, religious institutions, and other social setups.

• Empowering and encouraging communities to identify criminal, juvenile delinquency and anti social behaviour and to report.

• Empowering community elder, teachers and religious leaders to police their communities.

• Anti criminal, juvenile delinquency and anti social behaviour on the media

• Training staffs and establishing reporting and examination offices in Police stations

• Intensifying specialized training for counsellors and providing awareness raising trainings in schools.

• Support for Parents: Good parenting offers the strongest defence against anti-social behaviour. Inadequate parenting is a key cause of the problem. In today's society, parents are subject to a wider range of pressures than ever before as they attempt to raise their children. Parents take huge responsibility- yesterday I read on a friend's Facebook a saying that says " ክብር ለአያቶቼ ማስተዋልን ለአባቶቼ".  I say a generation has been  spoiled following the demise of HIM Hailesellasie's Dynasty - the Derg era had seen the worst period of hate, offence, arrogance, jealousy and so on. The Derg generation still leads the politics, social life and economy. Their offspring (us) are not any better but same “delinquents”. 

Alternative 2. Strengthening legal service and Rehabilitation of victims.

Strategies include:

• Special health (psychotherapeutic) units and procedure for diagnosing delinquents, maximizing privacy that would make victims and offenders.

• Opening more juvenile justice courts throughout the country

• Intensifying the application of restorative justice and integrating it into the criminal justice system.

• Revising the criminal code from time to time and ensuring its proper implementation.

• Providing trainings for prosecutors, law practitioners and judges on handling such issues.

• Making them join the police and defence forces/ doing services - gives them a good sense of responsibility. We are losing our good national custom and culture.

• Creating a Crime Victims Helpline that would serve as a National Helpline which supports, informs and empowers victims of crime and all those affected by crime.

• Better Planning: Bad planning has played a major role in contributing to anti-social behaviour.

• Proper Youth Policy: The lack of services and amenities for young people in many large residential areas is a major contributory factor in anti-social behaviour and the old National Youth Policy needs revision.

Alternative 3. Getting opposition political parties on board

• This option is extraordinary in that so far the role of opposition political parties the world over has never been considered as an option in the fight of criminality, juvenile delinquency and anti social behaviour.

• The criminality, juvenile delinquency and youth with anti social behaviour are frustrated sections of the society in most cases. Thus they need people who understand and can answer their annoyance.

• Allowing opposition political parties to organise conferences, trainings and town hall meetings for juvenile delinquents and youth with anti social behaviour.

• Helping opposition political parties to train and nurture the youth in nationalism, political and ethical education.

• Giving an airtime in the media where opposition parties would  discuss and educate juvenile delinquents and youth with anti social behaviour.

• Opposition parties should take the initiative to reach these sections of our society and try their best by all means and help them become better and non violent citizens.

Implementing entities: could be the collaborative effort and network of NGOs, Police, media, religious institutions, schools, health care centres, Child Protection Agencies (CPAs), the government, and opposition political parties, Donor Groups, regional organisations and community based associations. The alternatives would be implemented in Addis Ababa, at least two sub cities where poverty, prostitution, crime, juvenile delinquency and anti social behaviour are highly rampant.

Evaluation of policy alternatives

The above mentioned three policy alternatives would be evaluated taking in to consideration their effectiveness, efficiency, political feasibility, administrative feasibility and technical feasibility. The detail is shown in the following table.

Note:

1. Prevention of juvenile delinquency and anti social behaviour = 1

2. Strengthening legal service and Rehabilitation of victims = 2

3.  Getting opposition political parties on board = 3

Juvenile De. , Crime Policy Criteria	Prevention of juvenile delinquency and anti social behaviour (1)	Strengthening legal service and Rehabilitation of victims (2)	Getting opposition political parties on board (3)
Effectiveness	-it preventive -possible to cover large areas -focus on the juveniles  -takes  time to bring the desired outcome	-it is rehabilitative -difficult to cover large area -focus on system not on children -take long time to bring the desired result	-it is rehabilitative -possible to cover large area -accessing youth  is not difficult -take short time to bring desired outcome
Efficiency	- needs high cost	- needs high cost	- needs medium cost
Political feasibility	-supported by constitution and other international frameworks -Government interest -Supported by education policy and MDGs - huge implementation problem and gap	-supported by constitution and other international frameworks -Government interest -Supported by youth  policy - huge implementation problem and gap	-not clearly indicated in the constitution - no clear-cut domestic program, unknown gov’t interest -supportable by international frameworks - ground breaking initiative and option - easily implementable
Administrative feasibility	-schools, NGOs, government agencies, family and community - feasible	-police commission,  prison, hospitals, justice ministry and NGOs - feasible	-Opposition parties, NGOs, Community - feasiblity

Comparison of alterative policies

The above comparison can be summarized in the table presented below. The points for evaluation are given as 3 for the strongest, 2 for moderate and 1 for weak criteria of evaluation. Evaluation criteria	Alternative 1	Alternative 2	Alternative 3
Effectiveness	2	2	3
Efficiency	2	2	3
Political Feasibility	2	2	2
Administrative feasibility	3	3	3

Form the three alternatives, I recommend policy alternative-3 as a better option in the prevention and fight against criminal, juvenile delinquency and anti social behaviour on average.  It has never been tried but is likely to be most effective. Delinquency and anti social behaviour mainly emanate from frustration of the existing social, economic and politico cultural set up and these people won’t be willing to listen to the status quo at all. The only people they would listen are people who can understand their cry and frustration and it is them who can help in preventing and solving the national problem of criminality and antisocial behaviour.

The other alternatives meaning one and two have been exhausted internationally but to no avail however they might work along with the third alternative. Besides, the experience in the international setting also shows that the two options are less feasible in all forms. Although national policies including the National Women Policy, National Education and Training Policy, The developmental Social Welfare Policy and Social Policy have been put in place, none of them specially deal with juvenile delinquency or anti social behaviour in particular while the problem is so grave. Therefore, the need for this policy alternative is unexceptionable.

Key Decision Points

In order to implement the third policy option key decisions should be made such as mobilising human and financial resources, continuous monitoring and evaluation, building the capacity of implementing parties (Opposition Political) parties and commitment of stakeholders. The existence of peace and stability is crucial for the successful implementation of this policy alternative, thus the government should assist in the the protection and peaceful conduct of the policies from the start to implementation. Although there are very few home based strong national political parties in Ethiopia at the moment, opposition political parties with large number of membership, public acceptance, and grassroots presence should be the first implementers. A pilot project could be considered too.

Expected Challenges: The first significant challenge would be the absence of a united force that would represent the fragmented opposition parties. However, this can be mended after a thorough qualitative SWOT analysis of opposition parties. The second greatest challenge could be the government’s probable reluctance to take the policy on board and allow opposition political parties to go with the plan. This could be solved via a deliberative and mediatory role of Donor Groups, CSOs and NGOs. The other expected challenges can be professionalism, promoting the policy, political commitment from the government, Ethiopian Ministry of Youth & Sport and funding.

Conclusion

In this policy recommendation, I have argued that Juvenile Delinquency, crime and anti social behaviour have reached an alarming rate in Ethiopia/Addis Abeba threatening the peace and security of the country. For the nation to achieve its political and economic aspirations, the protection of citizens’ liberty, safety and security is necessary. I have also argued that there is need for a new policy alternative to solve the problem. Therefore, a third alterative policy i.e. getting opposition political parties on board has been recommended. This alterative advises that if Ethiopian opposition political parties are involved as main stakeholders in the prevention and fight against crime, juvenile delinquency and antisocial behaviour, the problem may be both prevented and solved. They have always seen law enforcement agencies, police and elders as adversary than as a helper. It has been the experience in many countries that juvenile delinquents and youth with antisocial behaviour were open and tolerant to opposition forces. As anticipated, if a popular revolution engulfs Ethiopia in the near future, unless these groups of the society are themed or well educated by people they listen to and respect (the opposition), it may be harmful reversing that. This would be in the interest of the government too. 

As He Came Into The Window
It Was The Sound Of A Crescendo
He Came Into Her Apartment
He Left The Bloodstains On The Carpet
She Ran Underneath The Table
He Could See She Was Unable
So She Ran Into The Bedroom
She Was Struck Down, It Was Her Doom - Smooth Criminal