Crime Prevention & Criminal Justice
Justice (R) K.M.A.
Samdani
Chairman, ACPF (Pakistan)
When we talk about criminality,
it is usually in respect of humans as the victims. But in the
modern times we can also discuss criminal acts against animals
(you need to speak to the animal rights people in this behalf)
and also against nature (in which case the environmentalists
are the concerned people) and so on and so forth. But I am presently
concerned only with mankind.
The purpose of this paper is to draw the attention of the world
in general and that of Asia in particular to the States' criminality
which is one of the greatest challenges of the 21st Century to
the man's sense of justice.
Now the perpetrators of crimes against humanity fall into three
categories.
a) individuals
b) criminal organizations (organized crime)and
c) States
Individuals as criminals have
been thoroughly discussed over the centuries and ways and means
to curb them have been devised and applied variously in different
parts of the world. They may engage our attention also in the
future as no society has so far been able to eliminate them completely.
As to the second category of criminals, who are part of organized
crime, they have attracted attention rather recently. In fact
one of the main themes of the last conference was organized crime.
But not much has been said about the criminal acts of States
and much less done to stop them.
We cannot meet the challenges of the 21st Century in the context
of crime prevention and criminal justice unless we address State
crime for which we need to have a full grasp of the way the human
race behaved in the 20th Century in particular and in the previous
centuries in general.
It seems the propensity to harm our fellow beings is greater
in us than to serve them. This is unfortunate; but the experience
shows that it is true. The reason why crime in some societies
is less evident than charity is not because the members of those
societies are less criminally inclined. The reason is the social
constraints - law being one of them. Therefore, in order to control
delinquency among humans, we tend to focus attention on the laws
in force in different societies - both substantive and procedural.
But, in doing so, we ignore the fact that sovereign States inter
se have no such constraints. Some people may be tempted to answer
back by pointing out that there is something called international
law. International law is a misnomer, to say the least. Unlike
the municipal law, it has no compulsive effect on countries or
their governments. There is no international police force nor
any effective international courts to enforce it. As a result,
we have witnessed the worst crimes committed by some of the States
of the World in the last century. Even worse crimes may have
been committed in the centuries preceding the past. But that
is rather remote and, therefore, may not be quite relevant today
as the mindsets and circumstances have totally changed. To add
to the blatant crimes committed by States against humanity in
the last century are the recent 'white collar' crimes being committed
by some States through certain international agencies against
the poorer countries. Here the expression 'white collar' denotes
only the economic crimes. Shylock of the erstwhile era may have
been a fictional figure. But today's Shylocks demanding their
pounds of flesh are real and more sinister. More sinister because
there are no courts where the counsel of the indebted countries
are likely to get even a fair hearing not to speak of justice.
More sinister also because the Shylock's debtor would either
die once for all, after a pound of his flesh was taken, or survive
as a free man - free from debt. What deterred Shylock was the
letting of blood which, unfortunately, is no deterrent today.
The fate of the indebted nations today is different. They are
enslaved for eternity even after having paid the principal amount
of debt several times over. This is the worst kind of exploitation
at a macro - level. For fair minds or for those who stand for
a just and equitable order in the world, this is one of the greatest
challenges of the 21st century - the economic enslavement of
nations. What needs to be done in this behalf is to mobilize
world opinion. No one gets rich (individual, organization or
Sate) except at the expense of another. Therefore, the more prosperous
are under a moral obligation to help the less fortunate. The
former do not possess the right to exploit the latter.
Another great challenge to the human conscience is the bombardment
of one country by another resulting in indiscriminate death,
injury and untold misery to the people of the victim country.
It is true that this is done on the pretext of humanitarian compassion,
but the question is whether this is justified. In the first place,
the guilt of the other country or its government is decided unilaterally.
In the second, the victims of such bombardment are as much the
innocent as the guilty individuals. If anything, the guilty generally
escape the so called punishment and the innocent bear its brunt.
What is needed, it seems, is an international court and an international
police force. These two functions cannot be left to be performed
by an interested party.
Yet another challenge to the concience of mankind is the human
rights violations by States against the minorities living within
their boundaries. Instances of government machinaries killing
innocent people because of their faith, ethnicity or similar
reasons, abound. It may not be necessary to cite them here. We
all know who the perpetrators of such crimines are and who the
victims.
In fact, States have to set an example for individuals. When
some States commit crimes against members of the human race within
or without their boundaries, and other countries condone it,
how can they expect their own citizens to behave in a reasonable,
responsible or legal manner?
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