Crime Costs
Last September the Khaleej Times ran a story of the kind I hadn't expected to see here. The title was "Juvenile crimes on the rise."
Juvenile crimes committed by youngsters in the age group of 11 to 17 years in the UAE are on the rise, and psychologists attribute the increase to broken families, cross culture marriage, illiteracy among both parents as well as pressure and influence of corrupt and notorious peers.
When I see an article like this I always make sure to draw a distinction between the absolute numbers and the rates of change. Failing to do so can often leave the impression that problems are far worse than they actually are and can thereby mislead policy makers.
My priors on this issue are that the strong influence of religion, stricter punishment and enforcement, and the greater emphasis on traditional family structure would keep levels of juvenile crime fairly low in this part of the world. Statistics cited in the article would seem to support this:
Bushra Qaed, a psychiatrist and Director of the Juvenile Department at the General Directorate for Punitive and Corrective Establishments of Dubai Police, disclosed: "Last year, 35 juvenile delinquents of 12 different nationalities were admitted to the Juvenile Department at the General Directorate for Punitive and Corrective Establishments of Dubai Police."
Ahmed Mohammed Abu Taha, a social worker at the Social Care Unit in Sharjah, refers to the situation as 'alarming,' since the number of juveniles enrolled at the unit is increasing annually. "The number of juvenile delinquents last year was 180 including both UAE nationals and expatriates, but the current figures to date (August) has already touched 120 and a further increase is expected by the end of the year."
Take note of these numbers. Together the emirates of Sharjah and Dubai have a population of 1.5 million inhabitants. Out of that they have fewer than 200 kids classified as "deliquent". And for them, that's a teenage crime wave. To me, that number seem very low when compare to a US city like Philadelphia PA which has approximately the same number of inhabitants. While I don't have any figures on how many kids in the city of brotherly love are "deliquent" but, when I consider that its Division of Juvenile Justice Services employs over 400 people and has a yearly budget of $124 million dollars, I feel very safe in concluding the number is a whole lot higher than 200.
And though the numbers of deliquents are clearly lower her on aper capita basis, it does not mean that the crimes committed by them are not serious. In Dubai
"Robbery accounts for 65 per cent of the crimes committed by UAE juveniles, followed by 12 per cent for kidnapping, rape and indulging in homosexual acts. Statistics have proved that UAE juvenile delinquents mainly indulge in robbery and theft to satisfy their quest for endless luxuries in life which is probably beyond their reach and not affordable with the limited pocket money they receive at home from parents."
In Sharjah, the breakdown is similar:
A study last year showed that 42 per cent of the 76 juvenile delinquents were admitted to the unit through court orders for robbery cases, and 36 among them were UAE nationals and the remaining 40 were of various other nationalities. Nine per cent juveniles were homosexuals.
The study indicated that nine per cent were charged with rape (11 UAE nationals and five from other nationalities), eight per cent for fights (nine UAE nationals and six from other nationalities), seven per cent for illegal driving without licence (eight UAE nationals and five from other nationalities), six per cent for abetting crime, four per cent for rape of minors, two per cent for killing, and one expatriate female held on prostitution charges.
If you've read this far you might be wondering what any of this has to do with business, let me say here that the answer lies in the matter of the explanations that the social workers and juvenile justice authorities provide for the rising crime numbers:
...psychologists attribute the increase to broken families, cross culture marriage, illiteracy among both parents as well as pressure and influence of corrupt and notorious peers.
Further, lack of direction and the will to achieve, primarily among the UAE national youth who hail from families with strong financial backgrounds, and easy access to educational institutions and conveniences in life, are all factors forcing the youth, specially teenagers, to stray and become a nuisance to both families and society.
Psychologists claim that lack of regular open dialogue between parents and their children, and weak family ties, are among strong reasons leading the youth to take the wrong path in life.
According to statistics, 49 per cent of juveniles in Dubai are not given enough time or attention by parents, and are not properly looked after because of their busy lives. Another 26 per cent live with divorced parents, and nine per cent live with separated parents who are not legally divorced.
"Family stability is a strong factor ensuring the success of children in their lives," says a psychologist in Dubai.
Two of the explanations really lept out at me. The first was the one about the kids from affluent families. The author would have us know that wealth, rather than poverty, can be a determinant of crime. In other words, if you have it too easy in life, if life is handed to you on a silver platter, it inclines one towards a dissolute and possibly criminal lifestyle.
Or perhaps affluence stimulates the latent propensities for this behavior whereas hard, goal-directed work that is a reward in and of itself holds them in check? Either way, its a fascinating hypothesis because the Emirates are growing more wealthy and if this relationship has its basis in fact, then we will see a crime wave among spoiled rich kids as economic prosperity rises.
The second explanation that got my attention was the one about the 1/2 of the juvelines not being given enough time by their parents, parents who, we are told, are living "busy lives". This is not an uncommon story and, if I understand it correctly, this explanation would seem to be the opposite of the former. Here was see the other dark side of rapid economic growth and prosperity: with increased productivity comes increases in the cost of living, especially in housing prices.
As a result, people may need to work longer hours to maintain their standard of living or may have to live farther from their place of work where housing is affordable. These factors can, in turn, lead to a situation wherein both parents are in work force and/or spending more time at work than before, the result being that their kids are left unsupervised, possibly neglected, and thus more likely "to stray and become a nuisance to both families and society."
But perhaps this second explanation is not so opposite as it seems. The mechanism is different but the end result is the same. The "busy lives" that are the stuff of which individual and collective industriousness are made can have a negative consequence for the family structure, thus increasing deliquency rates.
Whether or not either of these explanations holds water, this much is clear: if the phrase "work-life balance" hasn't been translated into Arabic already, it's past time someone did so.
Tags: dubai | sharjah | juvenile deliquent | crime | juvenile deliquency | juvenile | juveniles | work life balance |
Comments
Delinquents result when parents are too rich, when parents are poor, when parents are divorced. In other words, it's NEVER the kid's fault.
I remember HATING my time as a kid. Why? Because I was not the aggressive sort, and so I remember having to pick my way carefully around bullies and aggressive peers. It was a relief to reach the magical age of adulthood where I became PROTECTED by law! I was NOT protected until I WAS an adult. If some mean punk decided to punch me out, he could do so knowing that the incident would just be considered a "kid" thing. Once I became 18, if someone punched me it was THEN considered a CRIME!
I CHOSE to be a good kid when I was young, and not because my parents were there; actually they weren't around a lot. I was a latchkey kid from the age of 10 or so. My parents DID instill me a sense of right & wrong, and I acted on that training from a very young age. Of course, I also knew that every "action," good or bad, was going to result in an equal action, whether punishment or reward.
My point is this: ALL societies should STOP coddling criminal behavior from children just because they haven't reached a certain age. My parents weren't always around, but if I messed up, then by God, there was HELL to pay! I knew lots of kids that got a pass when they acted up. As soon as that started, HELLO delinquent! Lots of kids do wrong because when they first started doing so, there wasn't much risk involved. Positive reinforcement is okay, but the negative kind is what makes 'em think twice, or thrice, before doing something stupid.
Ultimately, crime is BAD for business. As Barney Fife used to say to Andy, "NIP IT! Nip it in the BUD!"
Posted by: Phil | February 22, 2006 3:28 PM