What is driving Bangladesh's rising juvenile crime?
The murder of 13-year-old Ishayat Shahriar Apratim in Cumilla has renewed concerns over the vulnerability of children to violence and juvenile crime in Bangladesh. As questions grow over what led to his death, the case has also brought wider concerns about adolescent gang culture, family and social environments, school intervention, online influences and the limits of law enforcement into sharper focus. Experts spoke to TBS to examine what is driving juvenile crime, why gang culture is taking root among adolescents and what families, schools, communities, and the state need to do before vulnerable children are drawn into serious violence.
Social media has played a role in adolescent gang culture
Dr Helal Uddin Ahmed, Psychiatrist
The phenomenon of crimes committed by minors existed before and still exists. The point is that its rate is increasing and its proportion is changing. We should not look at it merely as a social issue. First and foremost, I would connect it to an individual's upbringing and personality development — how a person grows up and learns to conduct themselves as a member of society.
So, when a person displays violent behaviour, we have to consider how much influence their family, their school and their wider environment have had. There are essentially three areas of influence: family education, formal education and the broader social environment. Deviations or dysfunctions within any of these can shape human behaviour.
Keep updated, follow The Business Standard's Google news channel
A kind of gang culture has emerged among adolescents, and social media has played a role in this. Whether it is TikTok, Facebook, Instagram or YouTube, technology has created an environment where young people want to grow up quickly, display aggression or appear "cool". They may think, "If I do something violent, I become cool. If I make a video and post it, I will gain attention."
This is driven by peer recognition. As likes and followers increase, they begin to see themselves as heroes among peers who think similarly. The more deeply this idea takes root, the more abnormal behaviours can become part of their lives.
Our task is to move young people away from the destructive forms of that culture and provide positive examples. That is a major social problem. We need to create an alternative form of "coolness" — one based on being genuinely smart, capable and admirable.
Dr Helal Uddin Ahmed is an associate professor at the National Institute of Mental Health and Hospital.
The solution cannot lie in policing alone
A I Mahbub Uddin Ahmed, Sociologist
The root of this problem lies in psychology — in greed and possession. However much we talk about controlling these impulses, no religion or state can deny the fundamental truth that people will sometimes fight or commit crimes because of greed, perceived needs or economic interests. There is an instinct for aggression within human beings, just as there is an instinct for pleasure, and it can manifest itself through violence and violent crime.
Society places controls on these impulses through religion, family, education, socialisation and the laws of the state. Many of the necessary laws already exist in Bangladesh. But one of our biggest problems is impunity.
The family itself is undergoing a transformation, which may partly explain why crime appears to be increasing. We now have many forms of family breakdown — single-parent families, divorce, children growing up without a father or mother, stepparents and so on. These circumstances can contribute to the formation of adolescent gangs, which can ultimately lead towards violence and crime.
Poverty is also important, as is unemployment. School dropout rates in Bangladesh have increased, and then we see child labour and child marriage. These are all reflections of what happens at the macro level and then manifests at the micro level.
The solution, therefore, cannot lie in policing alone. We must address the conditions that shape behaviour from childhood: the family, education, economic opportunity and the wider social environment.
Unless these foundations are strengthened and young people are given positive alternatives, violence and crime will continue to emerge as symptoms of deeper social and institutional failures.
A I Mahbub Uddin Ahmed is an honorary and supernumerary professor at the Department of Sociology, Dhaka University.
Earlier intervention needed to prevent juvenile crimes
Md Rezaul Karim Shohag, Criminologist
The government has to demonstrate the willingness to address the underlying causes of the increasing vulnerabilities of our children. When it comes to political cases, the government obviously has to look into those matters, and it is already doing so. But when other cases come before the authorities, people are sometimes discouraged by what they see.
Our executive, judicial and legislative bodies need to address these issues collectively, and we need to ensure that law-enforcement agencies and the public can work together.
But law enforcement alone cannot solve the problem. If we want to reduce crime and gang culture among minors, we have to intervene much earlier. Families, schools and communities all have a role to play in identifying children who are becoming vulnerable to violence, substance abuse or gang recruitment.
Schools, in particular, need stronger mechanisms for identifying bullying, exclusion and aggressive behaviour, and for providing counselling before these problems escalate. Children who are already involved in gangs should not simply be treated as criminals. There has to be a distinction between punishment and rehabilitation, particularly when dealing with minors. They need opportunities to return to education, develop skills and build relationships with positive role models.
The government also needs to address the economic and social conditions that push children towards these groups — poverty, unemployment, school dropout, child labour and the lack of safe recreational spaces.
Ultimately, preventing juvenile crime requires coordination between families, schools, communities, law-enforcement agencies and the state. If these institutions work separately, the problem will continue to reproduce itself. If they work together, intervention can begin before vulnerable children become involved in serious crime.
Md Rezaul Karim Shohag is chairman of the Department of Criminology at Dhaka University.
Inserting a word into a law does not necessarily make it effective
Shahzeb Mahmood, Researcher
If you look at TikTok's or Facebook's policies, they do genuinely talk about the glorification of violence, threats or incitement on social media. One of the things really missing from our framework is that, although we have laws addressing much of this behaviour, our digital security framework is not really regulated in this space.
If you look at the recent amendment to our Cyber Security Act, the Information Ministry is leading the process. If you genuinely want consultation, you need to include child-rights activists and different stakeholders and allow them to share their concerns. One of the problems with our law-making process is that there is very little genuine consultation. It becomes a censorship-centric approach to law-making.
There are genuine issues that need to be addressed. Take bullying: You can experience it at school, but when you leave, you can also be bullied on Facebook — because of your age, your appearance or your socioeconomic circumstances. We did not previously have adequate provisions dealing with bullying, and this time some have been included. But simply inserting a word into a law does not necessarily make it effective.
Suppose I introduce a provision stating that there shall be no content glorifying gang-related activities or inciting violence among children under 16. How do you enforce that? If you put this into our current laws, the outcome could be that children who might previously have been sent to prison are now even more likely to be sent to juvenile detention.
We do not have adequate juvenile detention facilities, and instead of focusing on rehabilitation, we could end up creating more pathways for children into the criminal justice system. The lawmakers have not been making the right kind of laws.
Shahzeb Mahmood serves as the Head of Research at Tech Global Institute.
