ARRESTING rising crime is one of the formidable governance challenges in Bangladesh today. If the present trend of growing violent crimes continues and a generalised fear of crime spreads, governance will be weakened and the economy will be hurt — eroding the legitimacy of the popularly elected government.
The minister of home affairs recently acknowledged the deterioration of the law and order situation since the upazila elections. Such a candid and honest recognition of the trend suggests that the government is ready to address the problem. The state minister for home affairs too also stated the sociological truism that no society is free of crimes. We will have to live with some crime all the time.
The issue that is vitally important, however, is not just the occurrence of crime but also the nature of the system of crime control and prevention. It is
very likely that different types of violent crimes -- drug, sex, trafficking of women and children, cyber crimes, and terrorism -- will increase in Bangladesh in the coming years because of a growing urban underclass, the increasing pauperisation of the rural poor, and the impact of various global organised criminal groups highly visible in South Asia.
In Bangladesh, we have the institutions of police and courts, but we still lack a modem criminal justice system competent and capable of facing the challenges of the twenty-first century. Our law enforcement agencies are over-worked and overstretched. Our judicial system is overburdened, and our prisons are overcrowded.
It is surprising that a country of 150 million people does not have a single academic institution to educate and train a modern cadre of criminal justice professionals. The police training academies are only for in-service training for law enforcement. Bangladesh does not have a single professional
criminal justice association dedicated to advancing criminal justice research and mobilising criminal justice professionals.
The country lacks a major institution responsible for collecting and analysing crime and criminal justice data to
assess the nature of crime and its trends. The present methods of collection of crime data by different regional metropolitan police departments need to be improved, extended and strengthened.
The recent Executive Committee of
the National Economic Council's (Ecnec) decision to set up a National Crime Control and Operation Monitoring Center is definitely a step in the right direction, but it needs to be able mobilise many of the existing institutions of crime control and prevention — an effort that needs a cadre of criminal justice professionals to work with law enforcement.
UNDP and other development partners have given grants for modernising our law enforcement. But, because of the non-availability of criminal justice research and criminal justice professionals to work with the policy-makers on the broader issue of criminal justice, many of those initiatives could not bear fruits.
In the area of criminal law, confusions are endemic about where legitimate political protests end and the process of criminal justice begins. Sometimes collective violence and vandalism are overlooked by law enforcement agencies on the pretext of political struggles by different groups. Law does not clearly define, or is not properly applied, to draw the boundaries between criminal violence and legitimate expressions of political
rights and grievances.
The recent statement of the prime minister, made in BCL's reunion rally, that students engaging in violence would be punished is highly commendable, but it needs to be translated into law. New laws are needed also in the areas of human trafficking, illegal drug use and posses-
sion, drug trafficking, manufacturing and trafficking of conventional weapons, terrorism and militancy, use of DNA in crime investigation, cyber crimes, hate crimes, and destruction of cultural and historical artefacts.
One of the important tasks before the government today, we believe, is building a modern criminal justice system as a vital component of governance improvement. The government is taking a number of reform initiatives, but they all need to be addressed in the context of reforming the system of criminal justice as a whole.
As a first step, what is urgently needed is the formation of a national commission for reforms in crime control and prevention for the study of the critical issues in crime and justice from a more scientific and systemic perspective. The commission, to be mandated by the Parliament, should include members of the academia, law enforcement professionals, legal experts, justice communities, and civil society groups from across the nation.
The nation urgently needs a system of law enforcement and justice that will be respectful to due process and human rights, and also highly efficient and effective for the governance of law and order.
Shahid M. Shahidullah. Ph D. is Associate Professor ol Criminal Justice, Virginia State University Habibul Haque Khondker is Professor of Sociology, Zayed University, Abu Dhabi, UAE.