Poverty and domestic violence leading to more juvenile crime
Oct 08, 2008
IT IS a few hours into the night. An owl hoots from a distance. In the same instant, a young girl’s wail pierces through the dark, silent and scary night.
By Conan Businge
IT IS a few hours into the night. An owl hoots from a distance. In the same instant, a young girl’s wail pierces through the dark, silent and scary night.
On her return from the market, at night, the 10-year-old girl has walked into a pool of blood, oozing from her mother. Maria Kudoni of Lubulio village has been hacked to death by her own son. He accused his mother of selling off his two cows.
Early this week, a 15-year-old stabbed to death an 18-year-old boy, Tadeo Bukya. He was believed to be an ex-lover who had jilted her.
These are just two cases of the 2,200 juveniles remanded since last year. However, there are other cases besides murder. They also steal, assault people, rape, rob and abuse drugs!
Juvenile crime refers to any criminal acts perpetrated by minors. While adult crime is typically well understood from a criminal psychology perspective, the range and causes of juvenile crime are vague.
In any case, juvenile crime poses a unique threat and responsibility to society to address and prevent before it can cause devastating consequences.
Some of the most common forms of juvenile crime are vandalism, harassment, drug use and sale, as well as gang-related violence and battery.
Last year, Police records show that 868 juveniles were involved in defilement, 506 in theft, 266 in assaults, 48 in murder, 30 in drug abuse, and 22 in rape. Those involved in robbery were 16.
While researchers do not agree on the causes of juvenile crime, there are a number of risk factors which are associated with statistically higher incidence and dangers for the youth to engage in juvenile crime.
Some of the major risk factors which have been found to increase the danger of juvenile crime are poverty, and the presence of drugs and drug-related violence in a particular community.
Domestic violence within the home is also a significant player in many lives of juvenile delinquents. Exposure to violent streets which already suffer from gang violence have also been found to play a significant role in increasing the incidence of juvenile delinquency in a particular area.
Easy access to fire arms, exposure to violence in the media, as well as an unstable family environment increases the risks of juvenile crime.
Due to lack of space in juvenile facilities, juveniles are sometimes kept in prisons with adults. The central prison system maintains one juvenile prison and four lower security remand homes.
“School facilities and health clinics in all five institutions are defunct; prisoners as young as 12 years perform manual labour from dawn till dusk. Overcrowding is also a problem at juvenile detention facilities, and in women’s prison wings,†says a police constable at the Central Police Station in Kampala.
Uganda has only four remand homes; two in western Uganda, one at Naguru, and the other in Mbale in eastern Uganda.
The remand home in Kampala, designed for 45 inmates, now houses over one hundred juveniles awaiting trial.
“Juvenile crimes are mainly caused by broken-up homes and those affected by domestic violence. Some of these children are also brought up with bad manners. Peer pressure is the other big problem,†Joshua Lubandi, the communications officer for the African Network for the Prevention and Protection Against Child Abuse and Neglect — Uganda Chapter explains.
He also adds that many children are wrongly accused by adults. “Some work and never get paid. For their employers to evade paying these children, they throw them in prisons on false accusations.†Many children are kept on remand for years without trial. They are supposed to be on remand for three months for civil offences and only six months for capital crimes such as murder.
“Several children are hoarded in there for years. The Government does not even facilitate these remand homes. Children can hardly get transported to courts of law for trial and they end up rotting in these remand homes,†Lubandi says.
“Some of them are in adult prisons like Luzira. They end up growing into adulthood in prisons.†Some remand homes just keep these children without undertaking correctional measures.
Uganda embarked on a child law review process as early as 1990 and in 1997, the Children’s Act of 1996 commenced operation. The Children’s Act is a law that deals with children’s affairs and their protection. The Act was aimed at consolidating all laws relating to child care, protection and maintenance.
Many people argue that a lot has to be done to help the children not to fall into crime. Meanwhile, the hands of those who run the remand homes are tied. They are overwhelmed with cases yet they cannot provide individualised justice and are understaffed.
This means these youths are at risk of becoming chronic offenders. Likewise, many school-based and community-based efforts to prevent the onset of delinquency are crippled by lack of focus, quality, and attention to what really works.
Experts in children affairs agree that the best opportunity to reduce juvenile crime lies in effective juvenile justice programming and aggressive delinquency prevention.
“It pays nothing to have a children kept in a detention home for years, without trial. It just makes them more heartless, because know they are being mistreated! Security organs need to also have special handling and units for children,†Lubandi, who has for years been visiting detained children, explains.
Unfortunately, current efforts often fail in these areas. Most of the funds now spent on juvenile justice pay for incarcerating young people.
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Dealing with young offenders
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Law enforcers, remand homes and counsellors suggest that there are dos and don’ts for anyone handling juvenile criminals.
What does not work
- Do not transfer the juveniles to the adult justice system. It increases criminality. Youth offenders transferred to criminal court re-offend more often, and with more serious offences, than those retained under juvenile jurisdiction.
- Do not use aggressive threats of adult courts to deter the youths from committing crime. You will not receive positive results. It just hardens their minds.
- Do not confine juveniles with adults. It is dangerous and counter-productive. Juveniles in adult institutions are eight times more likely to commit suicide, five times more likely to be sexually assaulted and 50% more likely to be attacked by a weapon. Prisons are excellent places for troubled young people to learn tricks of the crime trade from veteran criminals.
- Not all juvenile criminals deserve to get to remand homes and prisons. Transferring juveniles to adult court is expensive and they spend months awaiting trial—with a cost to taxpayers.
What works
- Juveniles who do not pose an immediate threat to public safety are better punished through community service.
- Early childhood intervention. Of all the strategies tested, by far the most promising for preventing delinquency are those aimed at nurturing well-behaved children as they grow. This works best in their first five years of age. Teach your children manners. Do not pamper them when they are in the wrong.
- Use research-based interventions for juvenile offenders. This helps to follow the rehabilitation trends of juvenile offenders.
- Proper justice measures help to rehabilitate the juvenile criminals. Do not deny them justice, rather pay attention to offering them justice.
- Close-knit societies can influence and address the problems facing the youth in a particular area and give them the support they need to reject negative peer pressure.
IT IS a few hours into the night. An owl hoots from a distance. In the same instant, a young girl’s wail pierces through the dark, silent and scary night.
On her return from the market, at night, the 10-year-old girl has walked into a pool of blood, oozing from her mother. Maria Kudoni of Lubulio village has been hacked to death by her own son. He accused his mother of selling off his two cows.
Early this week, a 15-year-old stabbed to death an 18-year-old boy, Tadeo Bukya. He was believed to be an ex-lover who had jilted her.
These are just two cases of the 2,200 juveniles remanded since last year. However, there are other cases besides murder. They also steal, assault people, rape, rob and abuse drugs!
Juvenile crime refers to any criminal acts perpetrated by minors. While adult crime is typically well understood from a criminal psychology perspective, the range and causes of juvenile crime are vague.
In any case, juvenile crime poses a unique threat and responsibility to society to address and prevent before it can cause devastating consequences.
Some of the most common forms of juvenile crime are vandalism, harassment, drug use and sale, as well as gang-related violence and battery.
Last year, Police records show that 868 juveniles were involved in defilement, 506 in theft, 266 in assaults, 48 in murder, 30 in drug abuse, and 22 in rape. Those involved in robbery were 16.
While researchers do not agree on the causes of juvenile crime, there are a number of risk factors which are associated with statistically higher incidence and dangers for the youth to engage in juvenile crime.
Some of the major risk factors which have been found to increase the danger of juvenile crime are poverty, and the presence of drugs and drug-related violence in a particular community.
Domestic violence within the home is also a significant player in many lives of juvenile delinquents. Exposure to violent streets which already suffer from gang violence have also been found to play a significant role in increasing the incidence of juvenile delinquency in a particular area.
Easy access to fire arms, exposure to violence in the media, as well as an unstable family environment increases the risks of juvenile crime.
Due to lack of space in juvenile facilities, juveniles are sometimes kept in prisons with adults. The central prison system maintains one juvenile prison and four lower security remand homes.
“School facilities and health clinics in all five institutions are defunct; prisoners as young as 12 years perform manual labour from dawn till dusk. Overcrowding is also a problem at juvenile detention facilities, and in women’s prison wings,†says a police constable at the Central Police Station in Kampala.
Uganda has only four remand homes; two in western Uganda, one at Naguru, and the other in Mbale in eastern Uganda.
The remand home in Kampala, designed for 45 inmates, now houses over one hundred juveniles awaiting trial.
“Juvenile crimes are mainly caused by broken-up homes and those affected by domestic violence. Some of these children are also brought up with bad manners. Peer pressure is the other big problem,†Joshua Lubandi, the communications officer for the African Network for the Prevention and Protection Against Child Abuse and Neglect — Uganda Chapter explains.
He also adds that many children are wrongly accused by adults. “Some work and never get paid. For their employers to evade paying these children, they throw them in prisons on false accusations.†Many children are kept on remand for years without trial. They are supposed to be on remand for three months for civil offences and only six months for capital crimes such as murder.
“Several children are hoarded in there for years. The Government does not even facilitate these remand homes. Children can hardly get transported to courts of law for trial and they end up rotting in these remand homes,†Lubandi says.
“Some of them are in adult prisons like Luzira. They end up growing into adulthood in prisons.†Some remand homes just keep these children without undertaking correctional measures.
Uganda embarked on a child law review process as early as 1990 and in 1997, the Children’s Act of 1996 commenced operation. The Children’s Act is a law that deals with children’s affairs and their protection. The Act was aimed at consolidating all laws relating to child care, protection and maintenance.
Many people argue that a lot has to be done to help the children not to fall into crime. Meanwhile, the hands of those who run the remand homes are tied. They are overwhelmed with cases yet they cannot provide individualised justice and are understaffed.
This means these youths are at risk of becoming chronic offenders. Likewise, many school-based and community-based efforts to prevent the onset of delinquency are crippled by lack of focus, quality, and attention to what really works.
Experts in children affairs agree that the best opportunity to reduce juvenile crime lies in effective juvenile justice programming and aggressive delinquency prevention.
“It pays nothing to have a children kept in a detention home for years, without trial. It just makes them more heartless, because know they are being mistreated! Security organs need to also have special handling and units for children,†Lubandi, who has for years been visiting detained children, explains.
Unfortunately, current efforts often fail in these areas. Most of the funds now spent on juvenile justice pay for incarcerating young people.
------------------------------------
Dealing with young offenders
------------------------------------
Law enforcers, remand homes and counsellors suggest that there are dos and don’ts for anyone handling juvenile criminals.
What does not work
- Do not transfer the juveniles to the adult justice system. It increases criminality. Youth offenders transferred to criminal court re-offend more often, and with more serious offences, than those retained under juvenile jurisdiction.
- Do not use aggressive threats of adult courts to deter the youths from committing crime. You will not receive positive results. It just hardens their minds.
- Do not confine juveniles with adults. It is dangerous and counter-productive. Juveniles in adult institutions are eight times more likely to commit suicide, five times more likely to be sexually assaulted and 50% more likely to be attacked by a weapon. Prisons are excellent places for troubled young people to learn tricks of the crime trade from veteran criminals.
- Not all juvenile criminals deserve to get to remand homes and prisons. Transferring juveniles to adult court is expensive and they spend months awaiting trial—with a cost to taxpayers.
What works
- Juveniles who do not pose an immediate threat to public safety are better punished through community service.
- Early childhood intervention. Of all the strategies tested, by far the most promising for preventing delinquency are those aimed at nurturing well-behaved children as they grow. This works best in their first five years of age. Teach your children manners. Do not pamper them when they are in the wrong.
- Use research-based interventions for juvenile offenders. This helps to follow the rehabilitation trends of juvenile offenders.
- Proper justice measures help to rehabilitate the juvenile criminals. Do not deny them justice, rather pay attention to offering them justice.
- Close-knit societies can influence and address the problems facing the youth in a particular area and give them the support they need to reject negative peer pressure.