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Law book review

Why people become criminals

Samaua M Karim
Criminology is an emergent field of study which deals mainly with crime and criminals. The book covers a wide range ot areas including biology, psychology, sociology, economics, culture, ecology and surrounding circumstances of a society in identifying the causes of crime. In the modern world, knowledge of criminology is vital for realistic purposes as well as for proper understanding of the human behaviour.
The author is an Assistant Professor of the Department of Law in the Dhaka University. In 1996 he was presented with The Reporters' Unity President Award for his investigative reporting. As a student of law, he worked as a journalist in the Daily Ajker Kagoj and the Daily Sangbad, and placed second in first class in his Masters examinations of the Dhaka University. Currently he is a regular contributor to the Daily Star, the Daily Prothom Alo, The Daily Jogantor and the Daily Samokal.
The book describes criminal activities as a disease, requiring diagnosis for its proper healing, thus stresses on the causation, prevention and correction of crime. Divided into seventeen chapters, the first two chapters speak about the origin and definition of criminology and provide a historical legacy of the field.
Chapter 3 explores an interesting area regarding the biological factors and criminal behaviour. Various theories have been discussed, such as, whether physical appearance is the distinguishing mark of the criminals or whether criminal behaviours result from joint impact of nature (genes) and nurture. The book covers studies of the relationship between food allergies and anti-social behaviour and the effect of drugs and alcohol. It also covers how DNA tests help identify criminals internationally which is now viable in our country since the set up of Bangladesh National Forensic DNA Profiling Laboratory at '6baka‘ Nkdical College Hospital in 2005.
Chapter 4 discusses the female criminality, addressing gender and crime with a view to find their mutual relations. In Bangladesh, in recent years female presence is seen in different types of offences including trafficking, hijacking, smuggling, keeping counterfeit coin, carrying illegal arms and other fraudulent activates. This involvement of women in criminal activities may be attributed to poverty, paying dowry, collecting money for release of husband from jail or for fulfilling expenditures and loans. This chapter discloses much interesting statistical data regarding the female crime rate.
Chapter 5 considers the relationship between economic conditions and crime. This chapter raises the question of whether places of more poor people have higher rate of crimes. Studies made regarding this area seem to have generated contradictory results.
Chapter 6 concentrates on the psychological theories of criminality. It has been provided here that low IQ scores seem to be associated with enme. In the US, personality tests are being used extensively in detecting and solving serial murders Sadistic acts are such traits, which may be detected, in serial murders. The chapter also discusses the use of insanity as a strong defence under which many defendants may claim immunity from criminal liahilitv ical theories of criminal behaviour. The chapter raises the question as to why crime rates differ from one neighborhood to another, from group to group, within large urban areas, or between village and urban areas. Theorists argue that crimes take place in a society and they are the product of social forces.
Chapter 8 discusses the tendency to assuming that poor and less educated people are more likely to commit criminal acts. The chapter discusses 'white collar criminality', as in the practice of chicanery and corruption of highly placed persons. It inquires whether 'white collar crimes' are crimes and identifies 'white collar crimes' in Bangladesh.
Chapter 9 provides updates regarding the police system of Bangladesh and information on various levels of police forces in countries such as Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, the UK and the US. Severed functions of the police are highlighted including prevention functions, investigation, interrogation, search and seizure, inquiry and report on suicide and unnatural deaths and function as a prosecutor. The condition and problems of police in Bangladesh are pointed out. The reaction of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh on police abuses has also been discussed briefly according to the cases of BLAST v Bangladesh 55 DLR 363 and Saifuzzaman v State 56 DLR 324.
Chapter 10 provides the meaning of punishment, forms of punishment and related issues of the penal policy of Bangladesh and Constitutional Provisions. In dis-cussing alternative measures to punishment, the chapter recognises that the penal policy of Bangladesh lacks sufficient alternative measures to punishment and imprisonment.
Chapter 11 explores the meaning of capital punishment in the UK and the US. A chart is provided on the execution of death penalty worldwide which illustrates that in 2004 the number of executions was highest in China. The chapter provides a list of informative arguments for and against capital punishment and provisions regarding capital punishment in International Treaties and the responses of various countries to them.
Chapter 12, in discussing the institution of prison, firstly provides the history of prison. The purposes of imprisonment, along with administration of prison, the role of prison staff and the international standards for treatment of prisoners have been provided in this chapter. Facts regarding the prisons in Bangladesh, the conditions there, the food, health and hygiene issues have also been discussed. A lot of statistical data regarding child prisoners, detainees, foreign prisoners, mentally disabled in prisons and the number of death in the prison have also been provided.
Chapter 13 exposes that a good prison institution classifies its prisoners, as they are different in their types from each other. Some offenders ought to be dealt with differently by the police, prison administration and other agencies. A certain amount of flexibility is required in dealing with these variations for which a number of mechanisms such as probation, parole, pardon, suspension and indeterminate sentences may be implemented. Probation and parole, being two devices of correctional justice, have been contrasted in a comparative study which clarifies their difference from one another.
Chapter 14 focuses entirely on Bangladesh and crime in Bangladesh. Special focus on the rise of extremist terrorist activities of the ultra religious outfit has been given in the chapter. It contains quite a lot of official statistics of crimes of the whole country which may be found to be quite alarming. As provided in the book, "reliable statistics evidenced that serious crimes are increasing gradually in Bangladesh. The rate of crime increase is even more than population growth.”
Chapter 15 explores juvenile delinquency and juvenile justice. The young, being the most susceptible segment of society, react sharply to any social chaos. The causes of juvenile delinquency in Bangladesh are discussed broadly supported by further statistical data regarding their number, the nature of offences they mostly commit, age distribution of the offenders and ecological distribution of the offenders. The justice system for the young offenders in also examined, including issues of criminal responsibility, alternative measures and powers, functions and procedure of the juvenilecourts.
Chapter 16 looks at genetics in relation to criminal behaviours and criminal justice system. Various questions have been addressed as to how the law ought to respond to new discoveries in genetics and to what extent the relation between genetics and behaviour affects legal doctrines related to privacy, autonomy, nondiscrimination and societal opportunities. On April 24, 2008, the Senate of USA passed the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) unanimously. The Act protects health data, and prevents companies from using genetic information in employing someone. It also insures non-discrimination of individuals due to their genetic proclivities.
Chapter 17 concerns cyber crimes which has grown to become rather sinister in modern times since everything is computerised, be it refrigerators or nuclear power plants. It pertains to criminal activities that already exist, such as theft, fraud, forgery, defamation and mischief.
It's a good book. It's well structured, informative, ideal to fulfil the demands of students, teachers, researchers and government functionaries having relation with the subject, as the author has intended. Some of the facts stated in the book are quite amusing, some data are quite shocking and overall it provides a good knowledge regarding the entire topic. The book provides helpful background knowledge regarding each issue discussed in the chapters along with the overall current situation and state of affairs in Bangladesh.
A special feature of this book is that the reality of Bangladeshi society has been related to criminology discourses. It emphasises on the requirement of attention on this subject in order to establish an orderly society.
The reviewer is working with Law Desk.