Thuggery willnot be stopped by arrest: Sociologists

Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

This is the fifth and last in a series of articles on thuggery, which has increasingly haunted Jakarta residents in the past few years.

Arresting and charging gangsters would not be enough to eradicate thuggery in the capital, sociologists said on Wednesday.

Paulus Wirutomo, a University of Indonesia (UI) sociologist, said that the whole gangster culture here was not only a criminal problem, but also a socio-economic issue, closely related to unemployment and poverty.

"If thugs are simply detained for a few months, they will just go back into their old habits when released," Paulus explained to The Jakarta Post.

"The government has to introduce a clear concept about how to handle them after their arrests."

Responding to the public outcry over the increasing violence by thugs here, the city administration, police and military launched a joint campaign in early August aimed at ridding the capital of these criminal gangs.

Thousands of the gangsters have reportedly been arrested across the capital. Police said they would be charged, but experts were a bit more skeptical about the follow-up policies that would prevent them from returning to their often violent criminal behavior.

Paulus suggested that they be given vocational training while in jail so they could get a proper job when released.

Similar sentiment was voiced by Farida Haryoko, another UI sociologist, who said that serious rehabilitation treatment during their detention would likely encourage thugs to have self- confidence and leave their old ways in the past.

"In order to have self-esteem, they, for example, should have a good source of income. Otherwise, they will return to their old habits to make easy money," she said.

She added that the gangsters would probably make good security guards.

Paulus, however, stressed that they could learn any skill and get any job if they had the opportunity.

Farida said in order to prepare the ex-convicts to become normal citizens, the government should involve various institutions like the city social agency, the small and medium enterprises agency, religious affairs institutions and non- governmental organizations (NGOs).

She stressed, however, that the police had to be consistent in enforcing the law against thug activity, because that was still the key to eradicating the gangster culture as it would deter others.

She also emphasized the need for preventive measures. She was particularly concerned about the growing number of street children, who she believed, were at great risk of eventually turning to crime and joining a thug gang.

The government needed to prepare a concept on how to help street children and provide adequate facilities to accommodate those who no longer have parents or relatives to take care of them.

According to Farida, the failure of the current effort to assist street children was caused by poor concepts prepared by the government.

"Currently many street children prefer to stay away from the shelters set up by the government because they do not feel comfortable in those places," she said.

She reiterated that without any concrete action to help street children, whose number was continuously increasing, a new generation of gangsters would be spawned.

"Their street life is hard and they see firsthand a lot of crime. They also feel shunned by the mainstream community. Those factors put them at high risk of becoming criminals themselves one day," Farida said.