Crime and its causes

One could be stating the obvious by taking the position that crime must be contained in this country on an urgent basis. It is with the most excruciating anxiety that the more sensitive among the local citizenry watch the daily crime toll in the form of murders, brutal and insane violence visited on the helpless and innocent, robberies and thefts of the most unsettling kind, to name just a few examples of such lawlessness.

We are happy to note, however, that not all good persons are choosing to remain silent. There is the Aggamahapanditha Kotugoda Dhammawasa Anunayaka Thera, for instance, who calls for the appointment of a Presidential Commission to explore ways of curbing crime and to investigate its causes.

Crime in this country is a conundrum and is not amenable to simplistic analyses. Suffice it to know that its causes are numerous inasmuch as they are complex. Accordingly, it would be futile to expect 'quick-fixes' to the knotty issue of crime although the problem should be confronted head-on by the state and the public. Concrete action must be initiated without further delay to manage the problem, since resolving it overnight is not within the realms of the possible.

There are two fundamental approaches to containing crime. One is the law and order approach, wherein the state's law and order machinery is used in an effort to quell crime and lawlessness. In this approach, the relevant machinery is entrusted the task of getting the citizenry to adhere to the law of the land, through a process of enforcement. That is, the law and order agencies are called on to play a pivotal role.

The other approach is long term in nature, wherein the causes of crime are identified and efforts are made to eliminate these causes. The latter approach is also more multidisciplinary in nature, in that a wide range of expertise, including that of a sociological, psychological and spiritual nature, is brought to bear on the problem.

In the normal course of events it is a combination of these approaches which is used in the management of crime. The day-to-day law and order issues must be curbed by the state law enforcement agencies through an application of the law, while the social and economic reasons for crime, for instance, must be ascertained and these amply remedied. For example, if increasing income inequalities are accounting for crime, these causative factors must be eliminated.

Likewise, if a lack of spirituality and moral awareness is detected as precipitating crime these questions too must be addressed by the state and other concerned sections on a systematic and gradual basis. All this only goes to prove the complex nature of crime and its containment. There are clearly no simple answers to the crime question.

In our time, in addition, we confront the phenomenon of the criminalization of politics wherein some politicians embroil themselves with the criminal underworld and render the issue of crime-containment increasingly complex and difficult to resolve. Decriminalizing politics too emerges as an important task.

While a purely law and order approach might seem to work in the short and medium terms it is the more arduous undertaking of identifying the causes of crime and eliminating them that would yield the more enduring and substantive results. But this is no painless process in that it calls for patience and a high degree of application to their task on the part of those seeking to manage crime.

While the proposals of the Ven. Kotugoda Dhammawasa need to be taken very seriously and studied in depth, we wish to join our voices to his to the effect that the problem of crime cannot be considered to be of secondary importance. Measures need to be initiated right away to resolve it, for time is of the essence and more and more innocent lives are lost to crime and brutality.

We need to remember that the 30 year conflict has done immense damage to this country at a multiplicity of levels. Among other things, it has had the effect of eroding the moral restraints of sections of local society. Besides, it has taken a heavy toll on the spirituality of some. The task at hand may seem to be enormous but delaying the process of remedying the blight might prove counter-productive.