A new approach for preventing crime

A new approach for preventing crime

Kittipong Kittayarak, PhD, is the Executive Director of Thailand Institute of Justice (TIJ). He is formerly the permanent secretary of the Ministry of Justice of Thailand. TIJ is a member of the Network Institutes of the United Nations Crime Programme or UNPNI.
Kittipong Kittayarak, PhD, is the Executive Director of Thailand Institute of Justice (TIJ). He is formerly the permanent secretary of the Ministry of Justice of Thailand. TIJ is a member of the Network Institutes of the United Nations Crime Programme or UNPNI.

There are many reasons a person commits a crime. And there are many agencies and structures that our society entrusts with important functions to deal with situations in which a crime is committed.

Our criminal justice agencies are equipped reasonably well for them to deal with crime in accordance with the norms of the society: giving suspects the possibility of defending themselves; allowing for the independent judiciary to decide the cases; and ensuring other due process safeguards according to the rule of law.

But the situation becomes more challenging when the reasons for committing the crime run deeper, such as when a person's development or living circumstances weaken his or her ability to distinguish between what is right and what is wrong, and to make a rational choice regarding whether or not to commit a crime. In those cases, what the criminal justice system is up against is not simply the manifestation of crime, but rather what sociologists refer to as the "structural determinants" of crime. These factors can be institutional, environmental, political, economic or social.

Structural determinants due to poverty, lack of opportunities and means of earning a sufficient income can lead a person down the wrong path, a path that ultimately leads to prison or to becoming a victim of crime themselves.

During a recent meeting in Chiang Rai, organised by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the Thailand Institute of Justice (TIJ), senior Asean correctional service officials, diplomats and international organisations based in Thailand discussed how the justice system can identify new ways to deal with tough issues such as crimes that have deeper root causes.

The meeting was significant because the participants shared real examples of promising practices in two different, but related contexts in Thailand -- one in which the correctional system is trying to deal with gender-specific and other rehabilitation needs of women offenders, and the other in which an area-based development programme has been successful in helping a community to lift itself up from illicit poppy cultivation to legitimate and sustainable economic activity. The study visit, both at the Women's Correctional Institution in Chiang Mai and the Doi Tung Development Project in Chiang Rai, was led by Her Royal Highness Princess Bajrakitiyabha Mahidol in her capacity as the UNODC Goodwill Ambassador on the Rule of Law for Southeast Asia.

At that meeting, I presented the outline of a new framework called development-led approaches to crime prevention and treatment of offenders, as a means for the criminal justice system and other relevant stakeholders to deal with situations such as those that I have mentioned.

The framework draws from the realisation that the underlying principles that guide the successful initiatives like those in Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai, have something in common: a partnership between active stakeholders from the public and private sectors; and human-centred development. I believe it is possible to draw useful lessons, like in Chiang Mai women's prison or Doi Tung, from similar initiatives around the world.

In doing so, not only can we test the development-led model, but further develop the concept by drawing from real practices in various development contexts. It will be of great interest for Thailand to join hands with like-mined countries in bringing this development-led framework to the forefront of international discussion. It is possible to expand and upgrade this concept as part of the United Nations framework, so that it may one day become even more useful as part of the international standards to guide and unite the efforts to bring criminal justice system towards a sustainable development pathway.

At this point, it might be useful to try to define what I mean by "development-led approaches". I use the term here to refer to any interventions, either by criminal justice practitioners themselves, or with support from practitioners from other sectors, that seek to enhance the capacity of the justice system to prevent or respond to specific types of crime and violence.

The development-led approach can be regarded as a framework that broadens the scope of criminal justice interventions beyond their traditional boundaries. By incorporating supplementary or complementary elements of individual or community development, the development-led approach can be more effective in addressing criminality or violence by targeting at its root causes.

In the most practical sense, the key elements of development-led interventions should, at the minimum, include:

(1) Identification of the root causes (often at the structural level) and the way in which these underlying factors affect or impact those at risk of committing crime or of becoming a victim of crime;

(2) Identification and implementation of development policy interventions or programmes that target specific vulnerable groups;

The development-led approach is, by definition, multi-disciplinary and involves a partnership between the criminal justice sector and other relevant sectors. As a concept, the development-led approach is based on the assumption that there is a linkage between the criminal justice system and sustainable development. Such a linkage has been identified before, but I believe it has recently regained prominence against the backdrop of the new global agenda on sustainable development, with the inclusion of justice, peace and institutions now recognised as part of the Sustainable Development Goals or SDGs.

Since the UN General Assembly adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in 2015, the global discourse on development has for the first time recognised peace, justice, strong institutions and more importantly the rule of law as imperative in achieving sustainable development. It is here that I see that the criminal justice system and development are mutually reinforcing and complementary.

Sustainable development, the criminal justice system and the rule of law can be mutually reinforcing and complementary because a healthy and well-functioning criminal justice system that adheres to the rule of law can strengthen sustainable development efforts. Correspondingly, the criminal justice system can benefit in many ways from sustainable development.

The key take-away from the study visit at the Women's Correctional Institution in Chiang Mai and the Doi Tung Development Project in Chiang Rai may be quite simple: In order to end the vicious cycle of poverty and crime, we should invest more in the development-led approach, starting with addressing the disadvantages of the groups that are most at-risk. These are the people in our prisons, low-income urban neighbourhoods, and poor rural communities.

These approaches need to be people-centred, and they should be designed to promote human security and development. Depending on the needs of the individuals or communities, the approaches can be initiatives that foster skills training to improve employment opportunities, promote gender equality, allow children to grow up in safe environments in stable relationships, reduce violence against women and children, and change cultural and social norms.

The development-led framework will be useful only if we can identify the relevant elements and take adequate actions. There will always be challenges in such an exercise. There is no one-size-fits-all or quick-win solution, but I believe that much can be achieved if we begin by rethinking the challenges and by investing now in efforts to tackle difficult issues for our sustainable future.

Kittipong Kittayarak

TIJ Executive Director

Kittipong Kittayarak, PhD, is the Executive Director of the Thailand Institute of Justice (TIJ). He was formerly the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Justice of Thailand. This article is an adaptation of his address at the Regional Conference on Enhancing Cooperation on Border Management in Asean, organised by the United Nations Office on Drug and Crime (UNODC) and the Department of Asean Affairs, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in Bangkok during 25-26 April 2016.

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