Index

Abstract

Criminality is a familiar concept around the globe. The way by which it can draw the attention of people throughout the world is the severe frequency of it. State considers the committal of such criminality in its territory as internal security challenges. Bangladesh, due to its socio-economic and socio-political issues is harboring significant types of criminal offences. Organizational failure to keep its stakeholders in a controlled environment and the political failure to keep its citizen’s moral characters upheld may have fueled the mushrooming growth of criminal activities within the country. This paper is an analysis based on the secondary information found especially from the official police statistics of Bangladesh, Non-government organizations and other reliable sources. This paper argues that Century-old legacy of laws, lack of public confidence to the law-enforcement agencies and sense of immunity after the commission of crime inspired the potential offenders of the country years after years. Here, less moral or legal education still hinders children’s balanced growing up with proper civic sense. As a result, a great number of crimes in one case provoke fear among people and at a time, it generates an inherent subconscious mind of people for taking these incidents in a usual way. Impact of international terrorism and illicit drugs directed the overall crime situation of this country in an unexpected destination. For bringing a positive change there, a paradigm-shift is essential. The starting is not easy in the existing system but that is indispensable here. Strategic formulation and implementation of proper planning accompanied by exercising moral teachings can improve the situation. Most importantly, the state authority should pay their heed in improving the situation while formulating policies.

Keywords: Criminality, Drug, trafficking, Terrorism,fear, of, crime, Enforced, disappearance, Extra-judicial, killing.

Received: 7 May 2018 / Revised: 10 August 2018 / Accepted: 18 September 2018 / Published: 25 October 2018

Contribution/ Originality

This study contributes in the existing literature with an analysis regarding the internal security challenges of Bangladesh and its seriousness. This study is one of the very few studies, which have investigated the overall crime situation of Bangladesh on the basis of police statistics

1. INTRODUCTION

Since the birth of humankind, crimes remained inevitable in the world in all societies, state, and religion (Miah, 2014). History admits that there was literally no society in the world where crimes were absent. However, it can vary according to the definition of criminality by a particular state or a given society. Sometimes the seriousness of crime may differ among different cultures. Now, a logical question arises what crime is. The definition needs a good clarification. There are differences between the definition of crime from legal and social perspective. In legal perspective, crimes are those acts or behaviors, which are forbidden by a specific authority vested with the power of imposing some sorts of legal obligations on its stakeholders. The authority generally indicates a sovereign one, like state (Paranjape, 2005).
Sometimes state can delegate its power to other authorities like a municipality, administrative authority, universities and other organizations to make and execute their own special law. In that cases they make, amend and execute laws but as the sovereign authority, the state always holds its supreme power as per se. Now-a-days some international treaties, conventions, protocols etc. have become commonplace among the nations but there is no sovereign authority to execute these regulations or rules. It is the state which has its discretion to follow the rules of international legal obligations. In most of the cases, these rules are followed by all the countries by dint of courtesy, not because of the binding force of any other sovereign authority (Paranjape, 2005). Still, the concept remains valid that the violation of crimes will generally be followed by punishment. If the state itself is the violator, no punishment can be inflicted upon other than the war or stopping business transaction with that country by other countries. Though there are some clinical approaches that admit the necessity of law violators’ treatment, it is not well-appreciated till now.

From the sociological perspective, crimes are the violation of social norms and values. Legal provisions sometimes do not declare any specific action as illegal according to the code but those can be considered as spiteful in the eye of the society (Miah, 2014). Sometimes ridicule, censure etc. are expressed to show hatred to the violators of social norms (Paranjape, 2005). It is to mention that in many cases state policy itself play role in increasing crimes. That means, if the state wants that it will declare certain act as a crime, it can make an impact on soaring the crime up at any time (Postmodernist School (Criminology), 2018). That is why it is very important that if the state considers something wrong, there is a little escape for people from the system. For example- if China declares like Saudi Arabia that the women or girls will not get the permission to ride any vehicle, it would be possible to make many Chinese girls or women criminally liable within a week. In a similar way, if the smoking cigarette is considered as a crime, the number of crimes may increase tremendously. Either they will be captive by their own system within the society or they will be captive by the state authority for violating the state law. However, there is a hope that state in most of the cases prioritizes the cultural aspects of the society and greater benefits of the community although in many cases that may suppress the needs of minorities in terms of gender, race, ethnicity or belief.

Bangladesh is an Asian country circled by India from its three sides. A very small portion of this country has the boundary with Myanmar. The Bay of Bengal is located off the southern part of the country, which has a tremendous impact on the business and lifestyle of the people there. Historically, this country went through the same legal procedures and connecting cultural-historical attributes like its neighboring countries (India and Pakistan). The criminality and the way of defining criminality in this country in many cases are not segregated from that of its neighboring countries. Crimes in Bangladesh now are manifolds. Different reasons are also liable for these crime incidents which will be analyzed later.

2. MATERIALS AND METHODS

This paper is an outcome of the analyis of different information and statistics found from different sources. Relevant data have been collected mostly from available websites where information about crimes are available (like police data and other organizational data). Afterwards, a thorough analysis based on other logical resources have been conducted.  This research also used different published materials like books, journals, newspapers, video materials etc. in both paperback and electronic format to collect relevant information and to interpret all of those synthesized data in a precise way.  Different pictorial diagrams like graphs and tables have been used to make the paper well-communicative.

2.1. Research Questions

The objective of this paper is to analyze the crime patterns of Bangladesh from the year of 2002 to 2015 to understand the nature of crimes with their causations and to indicate the solutions thereto. However, there are some specific research questions for this study –

1. What is the nature of ongoing law enforcement challenges (crimes) in Bangladesh over the specific duration?
2. What are the substantive issues behind the exposure of particular crimes?
3. How can these law enforcement challenges be addressed to make Bangladesh safer?

3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

This is very difficult to count the exact number of crimes in Bangladesh. As this country has a huge number of legal provisions, therefore, it is easy to assume that there are enormous violations of these laws also. No country generally enacts law other than some necessity of establishing the order or declaring a standard. We can see the constitution of UK that is unwritten and no problem occurs there as everybody by his or her instinct has a tendency to follow this. In case of Bangladesh, this is much more different. People think, “Like the number of stars, the legal provisions of Bangladesh are unlimited”. Though crimes always lack a generalized and specific definition all around the world, the patterns and nature of crimes are different thereby in Bangladesh from that of other countries. However, a vast number of crimes in Bangladesh make severe disturbance of the societal harmony. These include trafficking in drugs and human, extortion, fraud, robbery, corruption, abduction, black marketing, violence in politics, terrorism, killing, money laundering etc. Though not all the crimes have a similar impact on the people of Bangladesh, it seems that the crimes which are followed by extortion and fear, like-abduction and terrorism have much influence on the lives and livelihood of the people. This also generates a high-level of anxiousness among people.

The sources of knowing official crime data is very limited in case of Bangladesh. As there is a lack of well and methodological researches about crimes of Bangladesh, in most of the cases some discrete researchers, specialized reports of NGOs (Non-government Organizations) and the media reports can become the main sources of information in these cases. Recorded crime data by law enforcement agencies thereby are considered as a great source of such information as these data include formal complaints of victims in most of the cases and count the total number of offences (Khan, 2015). Access to police data needs a sophisticated organizational and individual level connection, which is very difficult to converge in many cases. Despite this, it is a matter of hope that police have been displaying many of their official gross account of crimes since a few years ago. At least getting a cursory idea about the overall crime condition based on some broad heads is now possible.

4. HISTORICAL OVERVIEW OF CRIME

From 1947 to 1971: After the separation from India, Bangladesh (then East Pakistan) faced some criminal activities like riots, smuggling, cross-border clashes through the unmarked parts of the borders with India. Police tried to term these crimes as the border crimes at that time. The annual report of East Pakistan Police mentioned about 3383 criminal incidents of clash and riots around the year including these crimes (Miah, 2014). It is worth mentioning that the official crime counting was only based on the official records at that time. This definitely does not indicate the real number of crimes of Bangladesh (Then East Pakistan) during those years.

Afterwards, some crimes like labour unrest and strikes for the withdrawal of ‘landlord system’ were more frequent at that time. Police referred six categories of crimes in their annual reports then and termed these crimes as category one to six crimes. The crimes under these categories were serious offences against the state, public tranquility, safety and justice, serious offences against the person, serious offences against property, minor violence against the person, minor offences against the destruction of property, crimes against special and local laws etc. The number of theft, dacoity, and robbery was in an uprising trend due to the contemporary social and political situation that existed during 1948 to 1950. From the year 1956 to 57, some crimes like murder, robbery, organized dacoity and theft increased alarmingly. Contemporary failure of law enforcing agencies and socio-economic crises played a great role in increasing these crimes at the given time.

After 1971, which is termed as the post liberation war situation, the crimes in the newly formed war-torn country reached to the pick. Theft, dacoity, murder, looting, smuggling and other conflicts spread on a large scale throughout the country. Some activities of left-wing extremist groups also spread in the southwest region of the newly formed country (Miah, 2014). Over the time because of the technological advancement, the overall nature of crimes changed. After the 1990s. At that time some coastal districts (Jhalakathi, Chittagong, Barisal, Feni and Cox’s Bazar), poverty-stricken districts (administrative units-like Netrokona, Kishoreganj, and Sunamganj) and over-populated district like Dhaka were submerged in the frequent number of crimes.

5. AN OVERVIEW OF THE MAJOR CRIMES OF BANGLADESH

Police statistics available on the website divided crimes of Bangladesh in some heads according to which explanation of crimes of Bangladesh can be quite easier. However, there are many other crimes that are not included in this list. A comprehensive discussion on the major crimes of Bangladesh, therefore, goes on according to the data available since the year 2002 to 2015. (Table-01).

Table-1. Comparative Crime Statistics:  2002 - 2015

Years/Crimes	Dacoity	Robbery	Murder	Speedy Trial	Riot	Women & Child Repression	Kidnapping	Police Assault	Burglary	Theft	Other	Recovery Cases					Total Cases
											Cases	Arms Act	Explosive Act	Narcotics	Smuggling	Total
2002	963	1397	3503	1693	1276	18967	1040	281	3959	8245	68898	3060	570	9018	4746	17394	127616
2003	949	1170	3471	2179	890	20717	896	271	3883	8234	66194	2293	499	9494	4499	16785	125639
2004	885	1207	3902	2053	754	13318	898	280	3356	8605	67531	2370	477	9505	4182	16534	119323
2005	796	898	3592	1814	570	11981	765	240	3270	8101	70046	1836	595	14195	4334	20960	123033
2006	795	843	4166	1638	570	11730	722	337	2991	8332	76381	1552	308	15479	4734	22073	130578
2007	1047	1298	3863	1980	263	15217	774	278	4439	12015	93224	1746	232	15622	5202	22802	157200
2008	885	1583	4099	1700	203	15246	817	296	4552	12188	87417	1529	239	19263	7962	28993	157979
2009	764	1298	4219	1817	112	13997	858	357	3456	9171	87022	1721	227	24272	7817	34037	157108
2010	656	1059	3988	1666	130	17752	870	473	3101	8529	87139	1575	253	29344	6363	37535	162898
2011	650	1069	3966	1863	109	21389	792	581	3134	8873	88355	1269	207	31696	5714	38886	169667
2012	593	964	4114	1907	94	20947	850	659	2927	8598	96112	1115	289	37264	6578	45642	183407
2013	613	1021	4393	1896	172	19601	879	1257	2762	7882	93930	1517	1007	35832	6437	44793	179199
2014	651	1155	4514	1716	79	21291	920	702	2809	7660	90400	2023	520	42501	6788	51832	183729
2015	491	933	4035	1544	93	21220	806	629	2494	6821	84137	2081	725	47692	6179	56677	179880
Total	10738	15895	55825	25466	5315	243373	11887	6641	47133	123254	1156786	225687	6148	341177	81535	454943	2157256

Figure-1. Comparative Crime Statistics from 2002 to 2015 (Derived from the official statistics of Bangladesh Police)

Source: Derived from the official statistics of Bangladesh Police

5.1. Drug Trafficking

World factbook of CIA mentioned Bangladesh as a transit country for illicit drugs that are produced in the adjacent countries of its territory (The World Factbook, 2017), (Miah, 2014). The International Narcotic Control Board claims in its report of 2007 that Bangladesh is situated in a strategically vital location for being used as a cross-border transit by the drug traders of the countries like India, Pakistan, and Myanmar. The report claimed that around 1 hundred thousand people of Bangladesh are engaged in this illicit drug trade.  International Narcotic Control Board in its report of 2016 again referred that the amount of heroin seized in Bangladesh increased and the trend of trafficking in drugs from Myanmar to Bangladesh is still in an uprising trend. The report claims that “Yaba” tablet (Methamphetamine) seizures tripled from 2014 to 2015 where a great amount of yaba seizure took place during the January 2016 (Regional Highlights, 2017). International Narcotics Control Strategy Report (Volume 1) Drug and Chemical Control) has stated some important information regarding the drugs and narcotics and their relationship with Bangladesh. This strategy paper stated that though there is no evidence that Bangladesh is a producer of narcotics, it is mostly vulnerable as the route of heroin trafficking. This report also indicates that the growth rate of the seizure of heroin, cannabis, and Phensidyl (a kind of codeine-based cough syrup, marketed by India) is symbolic that the abusers of these substances in Bangladesh are continuously in an uprising trend. This paper claimed that the porous borders of the country as a great cause behind this condition. Along with these, The newly arrived culture of establishing shisha lounge around the capital city has become an issue of concern. The word “shisha” is a Persian word that is also called hookah in many countries. It is a kind of fragrant tobacco which are smoked by a pipe mixing those with molasses, honey or fruit pulp. Though it is not forbidden under the country’s Narcotics Control Act, 1990, it is a common perception that these lounges are involved in different illegal drug trades among the young users who use these lounges or bars (Alam, 2015).

5.2. Piracy of Intellectual Property (Software, Videos, Books etc.)

Software piracy is one of the most common crimes in Bangladesh. Due to the lack of continuous surveillance of the government agencies, this problem is very difficult to address. In fact, this causes a significant copyright and intellectual property rights infringements. It is estimated by a website claiming to address the account of underworld economy that during the year of 2008, the total losses due to software piracy in Bangladesh was 102 million (2008 Software Losses by Country, 2009). A newspaper report referring AFP claimed that till the year of 2008, the piracy rate was 92 percent in this country, which was the highest among the Asia-Pacific region (Bangladesh Tops Software Piracy in Asia Pacific, 2009). A study conducted on the students of public universities in Bangladesh had interesting findings that most of the students use pirated software not with the intention of committing a crime but because of the high price of software, low-income level, lack of understanding and weak law enforcement system around the country (Rahman and Sultana, 2015). People are not treating this as crimes as they think that this is a usual way to use the expensive software or books or other resources. If they do not use the software, the producers will not get money; rather if they use software there is no direct harm to the company. It does not even create any fear among the people but the other people who are the businesspersons and produces of software, movies or other contents are concerned about this.

5.3. Terrorism

Terrorism is one of the most heinous crimes of the present age that has a tremendous impact on the sense of security of the people. Everyday many people die because of accidents but it does not terrorize people in a way that a small terrorist-incidents can do. Because of its tremendous impact, all government throughout the globe becomes very serious about the issue. In most of the cases terrorism is seen as a smaller portion of a large community and people think that there must have a great force which may attack at any time, in any place. Believing this just creates the whole world a prison and panic seizes the community instantly. No place of relief remains if people witness or read news of such terrorism. United States’ Department of State mentioned in its website that it is treating Dhaka as a high-threat location for their official in terms of terrorist activities. It assumes that there might have some international connections of the terrorist groups of Bangladesh. It thinks that these terrorist groups may be connected with Al Qa’ida in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) and Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIL/Da’esh). For the last few years, since September 2015 Bangladesh experienced a number of incidents like a series of violent attacks on the foreign nationals, bomb attacks against law enforcing personnel, murders of foreign nationals, attacks on religious minorities (Shias, Ahmadis, Hindus, Chistians). Attacks on Holey Artisan Bakery restaurant on July1, 2016 was one of the most serious attacks among the incidents which drew the attention of mass people not only in the country but also in all over the world. It is a matter of concern that since 2015, AQIS and its alleged domestic counterpart Ansar al Islam (AI) claimed their responsibility for seven terrorist attacks specially in Dhaka  (Bangladesh 2017 Crime & Safety Report, 2017). However, No solid proof behind this is evident yet and the law enforcement agencies denied that these groups have any global connection. However, some other terrorist groups like Purba Bangla Communist party, Sharbahara etc. Some ethnic groups in the Southeastern part of the country are still in operation. As a result presently political violence, very rare incidents of religion-based terrorism, ideological terrorism, and terrorist activities run by the tribal minorities are affecting the state.

5.4. Abduction or Forced Disappearance

According to the report of Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK) within the month of January to September of 2014, a number of 82 persons were disappeared. Among them dead body of 23 persons was recovered, 10 was released after the abduction, 7 were declared by RAB as they were arrested before, 1 was found in the police station and 2 were sent to jail. All of these abductions were alleged to be committed by the law enforcement officials (Forced Disappearances: Alleged Abduction by Law Enforcement Officials, 2014). Odhikar, a humn rights agency as the part of their observing the International Week of the disappeared mentioned that since 2009 to April of 2015, a number of 205 people were disappeared. Among them 28 people were found dead, 65 persons were freed, some were presented to the court and shown that they were arrested in different cases. A total of 112 persons are totally unknown. The families of the victims claim that RAB, Police and Detective Branch (DB) of police abducted them sometimes in plain clothes and civil cars (Odhikar, 2015).

Quoting Abbas Fais, a researcher of Amnesty International, Aljazeera wrote that the number of successful investigation in cases of abduction is very rare in Bangladesh. Other than getting any court’s order police usually are reluctant to register complaints (Bergman, 2014). Most of the people from all walks of life accuse the law enforcing agencies for the disappearance of these people (Hussain, 2016). In response, the law enforcement authorities repeatedly deny this accusation claiming that those persons are hiding voluntarily. Moreover, police do not allow the guardians of the victims to complaint formally about such abduction (Bangladesh: End Disappearances and Secret Detentions: Ensure Justice Answers for Rights Abuses, 2017). However, the number is still very alarming in Bangladesh and the statistics show that at least 89 people have been abducted by law enforcement authority during 2016 (Human Rights Day: Culture of Impunity Must be Stopped, 2016). However, there are a lot of abductions and kidnapping where the law enforcement agencies are not connected by any means. Some sexual offenders sometimes kidnap girls or some other groups abduct other people for abusing the girls sexually or to claim ransom from the victims’ family. Sometimes, some people engaged in trafficking in human and thereby they are involved in such abduction or kidnapping.

5.5. Murder, Homicide, Custodial Death and Extra-Judicial Killing

Killing in police custody or alleged cross-fire has a serious impact on people’s way of living. It has been found from the report of Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK) that during the six months of 2016, at least seventy-nine people were killed by the law enforcing agencies in the custody or in the name of “crossfire”. During that period, the members of law enforcing agencies picked 50 people in plainclothes where six among them were found shot dead (Anam, 2016).  Sometimes the term “crossfire” is also substituted by the word “gunfights” which was not so frequent before the creation of Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), the elite force combining the members of police, armed forces (Army, Navy and Air Force), Border Guard Bangladesh, Bangladesh Coast guard and Bangladesh Ansar (Kamruzzaman et al., 2016). This number of such homicide is 90 during the year of 2017, according to the news of the daily Star based on the information of Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK) (Anam, 2017). Another NGO which works with the violation of human rights in Bangladesh, published a report where it showed that starting from 2001 to the end of 2017, a total of 2865 persons were the victims of extra-judicial killing by law-enforcement authority in Bangladesh, which is quite alarming (Extra-Judicial Killings from 2001 – 2017, 2017).

It is a fact that the homicide which the law enforcing agencies commit in  Bangladesh is not the only cause. Besides, Bangladesh witnesses an alarming number of murders every year throughout the whole territory. According to the statistics of Bangladesh police, a number of 55,825 persons were murdered throughout the whole country from the year 2002 to 2015. This is certainly an issue of concern in Bangladesh (Table-01). Due to different family issues, property related issues, sexual aggression and other reasons, these great number of murders are committed in Bangladesh.

5.6. Political Violence

Political violence is a great problem for Bangladesh since its very liberation during 1971. According to a report of Odhikar, a human rights organization, it is found that during the year 2015, a total of 197 persons were murdered because of political reasons where 8312 were injured subsequently. The persons who were killed, among them 69 persons were burnt by petrol bombs and arson attacks, where other five were killed during the election by other means. The persons who were injured then, among them 689 were burnt by arson attacks or petrol bomb. A lot of persons were injured because of intra-party disputes within the biggest political parties of Bangladesh (Bangladesh: Human Rights Report, 2015). It is a well-known issue of Bangladesh that politics will be followed by violence and terrorism here. This is the reason why good people nowadays become reluctant to engage themselves in politics. Thus, the overall system is going in the worst direction. Assassination is the highest form of political violence though frequent violence in the everyday activities of politics is much common in Bangladesh. No politician thinks in Bangladesh that he or she will be able to come back home freely everyday without witnessing violence.

5.7. Extortion

In Bangladesh, people want to keep it secret that they have much money in fear of extortion. It is heard that people from different walks of life, specially the businessmen are in many cases compelled to give a lot of money to the local “mastans” (who demand money by extorting people). By taking a political identity, these persons extort people to compel the victims for giving money to them. This is seemingly a major security concern for the people of Bangladesh. However, the website of Bangladesh Police did not show it their official statistics under a different sub-head but it is quite a vital issue for which people of this country remain very anxious. Sometimes this extortion changes its nature by addressing these as the (mandatory) donation for the political activities (Khandaker, 2017).

Sometimes the members of law enforcement agencies also are accused of such extortions. Some recent incidents assert that this should be controlled in a strict way. It is informed by the police headquarters that the allegation against the police personnel starting from superintendent to constable is still on a rising condition which is very alarming (Extortion Allegation against Police, 2017). Police officers are sometimes accused of having ransom for freeing any alleged offender (Islam, 2017); (Police Officer Tried to Blackmail Bangladesh Bank Official Threatening Yaba Taint, 2016).  It is very obvious from the study that some offenders on the cover of politics and some corrupt police personnel are prone to commit such extortion.

5.8. Cyberstalking

Cyberstalking is the use of internet or any other electronic means to harass any individual, group or other organizational entity. It may include threat, sex provoking message, libel, slander, false accusation, identity theft, vandalism etc. There are some specific key factors to identify cyberstalking cases like false accusations, gathering information about the victims, monitoring victim’s activities, encouraging others to harass the victims and false victimization. In Bangladesh, the incidents of cyberstalking has increased at a rapid rate. Young girls and the women become the victims of such offences in most of the cases. Sometimes people expose the private pictures or videos when they encounter a break-up in their relationship. In most of the cases, the victims cannot registrar complaints to the police because they become anxious with the social reaction they have to face, if people know this. Sometimes, the offenders threat the victims for not complaining against them to the police, otherwise they threat to do more harm to the victims. Therefore, a silent victimization is occurring most frequently in Bangladesh specially after a huge breakthrough of social networking websites (Cyber Stalking: Only Fast Redress and Immediate Legal Recourse can Ensure Web Safety, 2016). The daily observer reports that more than 30 percent of women who belong to the age group 18-25 have reported about their victimization of cyberstalking (Hayat, 2017). This is a very serious issue that people are becoming victims with the aid of social networking websites. Though law enforcing authorities are trying to take actions against such victimization, combating such a sophisticated and frequent crime other than making public aware about it seems to be a great problem in Bangladesh.

5.9. Women and Child Oppression/ Violence against Women and Children

Since the ancient time, women are treated as they are less capable in terms of physical stamina compared to their male counterparts, thereby they would follow the instructions and advice of their male counterparts. When the males find that they intend to be like their own, in many cases, the males become furious and victimize them in many ways (Khan and Kamruzzaman, 2010). According to the statistics of Bangladesh police from 2002 to 2015, a number of 243,373 women and children oppression were registered in the police stations (Table 1 and figure 1). Among them, domestic violence is most significant. Along with this, acid throwing (a hatred crime where the corrosive substances are thrown to the girls’ or women’s face to disfigure their appearance) and sexual abuse are also very common issues.  A study logically referred that violence against women may include but not limited into physical abuse, sexual abuse, stalking, intimidation, economic deprivation, passive domination by harassment etc. (Khan et al., 2017).

In Bangladesh, the forms of violence against children are also manifolds, like- physical violence, sexual violence, psychological violence etc. During 2012-2013 it is estimated that about 66 percent of children experienced physical punishment and 24.6 percent among those children were subjected to severe punishment (Analysis of the Situation of Children and Women in Bangladesh, 2015). Thus, violence against children and physical abuse are also very common forms of crime in Bangladesh. Some recent incidents of child abuse have attracted the attention of law enforcement officials and the common masses to be aware of such heinous crimes.

5.10. Robbery and Dacoity

From the ancient period, Bangladesh was associated with some basic forms of criminality among which dacoity and robbery were mentionable. From the police data (Table-01) it is found that within the 16 years a total of 10738 dacoities and 15895 robberies were committed in Bangladesh. It is worth mentioning that in reality, the number is much higher than it is in the police data. The reason behind the underreporting of these crimes are people’s perception that police will not be able to recover the properties robbed and along with this, some sorts of legal obligations will impose upon the complainants. This is the reason because of which the number of crimes is very low in the police report in Bangladesh than the actual numbers of incidents. Statistics show that 75.96 percent of people always fear that they may be the victim of such crimes because of the frequency of their known persons who experience such things (Table-02).

5.11. Theft and Burglary

Theft and burglary are very usual in Bangladesh. The actual number of theft is not possible to measure, as this is so frequent in the country that everybody in their everyday affairs bears this fear that any of their products may be stolen at any time. Even if they are not at home, it can even happen by housebreaking. Nothing is treated as safe there. The number of theft and burglary in police report within the 14 years though is shown 123,254 and 47,133 respectively; the actual number would be much higher (Table 1 and Figure 1).  It is the reality that there are very few families, who have not experienced theft in any of their everyday affairs. Vehicle theft, mobile theft, household theft, cattle theft, money theft etc. are very common in Bangladesh. It has become a common trend that if any product or article is stolen, everybody thinks that the victims should have been careful enough so that the product might be safe, rather than accusing the criminals. The situation is quite suffocating nowadays. If any outsider goes to the country, he or she may feel that he has come to a safari park where the animals are free and the people are always in the cage.

5.12. Corruption

Corruption is sometimes an abstract concept that requires some indicators to understand. It is so integral to the culture of Bangladesh that this country remained the most corrupt country consecutively for five years from 2001 to 2005. Though now this position is 15th, it is not evident that it has done any significant headway in preventing corruption (Hashmi, 2017). There is basically no place where corruption has not intruded. Transparency International generally measure corruption based on their Corruption Perception Index (CPI) (Corruption in Bangladesh, 2017). In the statutory penal provision, corruption is defined in the Prevention of Corruption Act where it referred some issues like taking illegal gratification, committing criminal misconducts etc. which are already stated in another statutory provision, i.e- the Penal Code (The Prevention of Corruption Act 1947, 1947). However, the way Transparency International measures the corruption that is the perception index and definitely may differ from the parametric points of view. Now, there is corruption in each and every profession, from lower to a higher level. The government established an alleged independent Anti-Corruption Commission in Bangladesh to address the issue but the things are still unchanged. The activities of this commission also went through severe criticism for investigating the issues of opposition party mostly. However, it is still conducting its operation in spite of its heavy biasness and limitations.

6. DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS

6.1. Nature of Substantive and Procedural Laws of Bangladesh

Bangladesh is a commonwealth country, which once was ruled by the British raj and Pakistani rulers consecutively. It is, therefore, very natural there that it is still bearing the British colonial legacy. It is a matter of sorrow that in most of the cases our law enforcement agencies are using the legal provisions of past century.

Table-2. Major Legal Provisions of Bangladesh

Legal Provision	Year of Enactment
The Code of Criminal Procedure	1898
The Penal Code	1860
The Police Act	1861
The Prevention of Corruption Act	1947
The Prisoners Act	1900
The Prisons Act	1894
The Evidence of Act	1872

Source: Official website of Legislative and Parliamentary Affairs Division, Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh (bdlaws.minlaw.gov)

Bangladesh got its independent during the year of 1971 from Pakistan but still, most of the legal provisions are age old and not updated with time. This is the reason why Bangladesh in many cases lagging behind the time. A list of criminal laws is given below to understand their year of enactment (Table 3). Most of these laws have failed to work with the progress of time and therefore, these failed to address the legal necessity of people present century. These laws are supposed to be under a significant revision to update

6.2. Activities of Law Enforcement Authorities

Bangladesh police are the civil force, which is authorized to deal with all the internal security concern of the country. Some important changes, however, was introduced within the police. During 26 March 2004, an elite anti-crime and anti-terrorism unit of Bangladesh was added within this agency, which was formed and named as Rapid Action Battalion (RAB). This unit is composed of the persons coming from Bangladesh Police, Bangladesh Army, Bangladesh Navy, Bangladesh Air Force, Border Guard Bangladesh and Bangladesh Ansar. This force achieved the faith of people though there are serious accusations of extrajudicial killing and forced disappearance against this unit of the police. There is another branch of police which is known as Detective Branch (DB) that is supposed to investigate the sophisticated and sensitive crimes but they are widely alleged to abduct people in plain clothes and in private vehicles. This news has a tremendous impact on the level of public confidence towards police. There are some other agencies under the Ministry of Home Affairs which also do some policing activities in very specific sectors like Bangladesh Coast guard, Bangladesh Ansar, Department of Narcotics Control and Border Guards Bangladesh. There are some other agencies outside of the Ministry of Home Affairs which are Bangladesh Customs and the independent Anti corruption commission.

Bangladesh Customs works under the supervision of National Board of Revenue (NBR) which is the lead tax collection agency in Bangladesh. NBR is a part of the Internal Resources Division (IRD) of the Ministry of Finance (Bangladesh Country Commercial Guide, 2017). However, people have very less confidence in these agencies because of their plethoric involvement in corruption.

6.3. Peoples’ Acceptance of Laws

There are some laws in Bangladesh about which people have a little idea and those issues are so trivial in terms of the state priority that these issues are not found in the priority list of the law enforcement agencies. For example- legal provisions regarding the infringement of property rights etc. In this way, a lot of enactment of the law is existing in Bangladesh many of which have no practical usage. People are neither thoughtful about observing these rules, nor the law enforcement agencies are interested to address the violations seriously.

6.4. Dark Figure of Crime

In Bangladesh people lacks the trust on police because of corruption, abduction, using of excessive force and misbehavior.  This is the reason for which most of the people do not lodge complaints to the police. They sometimes fear that they may fall into another problem if they go for lodging a complaint in the police station. That has created a dark figure of crime. It can be said that police statistics is the representation of a very small portion of the total crimes, which are committed in Bangladesh. The difference between the actual crime rate and the recorded crime data is called as the dark figure of crime (Bohm and Haley, 2014). This dark figure does not come out in front other than the publication of some reports by non-government organizations.

6.5. Fear of Crime and Fear of Abuse

In Bangladesh people fear mostly two opposite kinds of people, i.e.-the offenders and the law enforcement agencies. The daily incidents that happen around the country are the reasons for which people have an anxious about being abused by both the offenders and the law enforcement agencies. A website conducted a survey on the people’s perception of different crimes in the capital city of Bangladesh, which reveals people’s vulnerability feeling in the country. It yielded a very serious security concern of people. People’s perception generally runs around either from their own experiences or the experience of their known persons. This statistics indicates lack of people’s faith in the statutory agencies (Adamovic, 2017). Though study reveals that people mostly fear those places where they are less known and where their social connection are less (Khan et al., 2009) the other places are not also devoid of such fear (Table 03).

Table-3. Public Perception about Crimes and Victimization in Dhaka, Bangladesh

Parameters	Percentage	High/Low
Level of crime	78.35	High
Crime increasing in the past 3 years	78.05	High
Worries home broken and things stolen	70.57	High
Worries being mugged or robbed	75.96	High
Worries car stolen	68.83	High
Worries things from a car stolen	65.55	High
Worries attacked	64.38	High
Worries being insulted	57.72	Moderate
Worries being subject to a physical attack because of your skin colour, ethnic origin or religion	40.43	Moderate
Problem people using or dealing drugs	70.62	High
Problem property crimes such as vandalism and theft	75.3	High
Problem violent crimes such as assault and armed robbery	71.6	High
Problem corruption and bribery	92.63	Very High

(Source: http://www.nationmaster.com)

7. CONCLUSION

The geographic location of Bangladesh with its nature of intolerance, influence with international terrorist groups, lack of good governance, lack of public confidence to the law enforcement agencies, illiteracy, unemployment, ethical degradation, lack of moral teaching and poverty are some of the key factors because of which the number of crimes are numerous here (Miah, 2014).  Moreover, the political condition, which is most important in playing role in reducing crimes, is in the very fragile condition in Bangladesh. Good governance, moral education, strict application of legal procedure and a great organizational reform can improve the situation gradually. Though crime is inevitable in every society, the frequency, which is existing in Bangladesh, is very objectionable. A proper design based on timeline taking five-year or ten-years planning can work to improve the situation. Proper policy formulation and organizational reform can work as the key factor in improving the overall situation and reducing crimes. Amendment of legal provisions as per the demand of the age is another key requirement for the improvement of the system. Law enforcement organizations should be very concern about the professionalism and human rights. No extra-judicial killing or human rights violation should be tolerated from them anymore. Close-circuit camera surveillance, removal of political protection of the criminals and developing the social institutions are quite mandatory for solving the problem. Zero-tolerance against drugs related offence may reduce many associated crimes. Additionally, the the persons who are involved in different crimes should be treated very well so that they can become good citizens after the reform program. In fine, it can be said that a proper will from the government making a very specialized team of experts for the improvement of law enforcement can solve the problem within a logical duration.

Funding: This study received no specific financial support.

Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Contributors/Acknowledgement: Both authors contributed equally to the conception and design of the study.

REFERENCES

2008 Software Losses by Country, 2009. Available from http://www.havocscope.com/2008-software-losses-by-country/ [Accessed 11 15, 2017].

Adamovic, M., 2017. Crime rates in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Available from https://www.numbeo.com/crime/in/Dhaka [Accessed 11 16, 2017].

Alam, A.S., 2015. Killer in disguise. Dhaka, Bangladesh. Available from http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:sOArTbBxMSYJ:archive.newagebd.net/84643/killer-in-disguise/+&cd=16&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=bd&client=firefox-b-1-ab [Accessed 11 15, 2017].

Analysis of the Situation of Children and Women in Bangladesh, 2015. Analysis of the situation of children and women in Bangladesh. Dhaka: United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

Anam, M., 2016. 79 killed in 'crossfire' or police custody in 6 months. Dhaka, Bangladesh: The Daily Star, Mahfuz Anam.

Anam, M., 2017. 90 killed in crossfire or custody in 2017: Report. Dhaka, Bangladesh: Mahfuz Anam.

Bangladesh 2017 Crime & Safety Report, 2017. Washington, D.C., United States of America. Available from https://www.osac.gov/pages/ContentReportDetails.aspx?cid=21165 [Accessed 11 16, 2017].

Bangladesh Country Commercial Guide, 2017. Available from https://www.export.gov/article?id=Bangladesh-Customs-Regulations [Accessed 11 17, 2017].

Bangladesh Tops Software Piracy in Asia Pacific, 2009. Dhaka, Bangladesh. Available from http://www.thedailystar.net/news-detail-88279 [Accessed 10 16, 2017].

Bangladesh: End Disappearances and Secret Detentions: Ensure Justice Answers for Rights Abuses, 2017. Bangladesh: End disappearances and secret detentions: Ensure justice, answers for rights abuses. Human Rights Watch. Available from https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/07/06/bangladesh-end-disappearances-and-secret-detentions [Accessed 11 16, 2017].

Bangladesh: Human Rights Report, 2015. Available from https://www.fidh.org/IMG/pdf/20161114_bangladesh_odhikar_hrreport_2015.pdf [Accessed 11 16, 2017].

Bergman, D., 2014. Forced disappearances' surge in Bangladesh. Aljazeera. Available from http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2014/10/disappearances-surge-bangladesh-20141019124512338962.html [Accessed 11 16, 2017].

Bohm, R.M. and K.N. Haley, 2014. Introduction to criminal justice. USA: McGraw Hill.

Comparative Crime Statistics: 2002 - 2015, 2016. Dhaka, Bangladesh. Available from https://www.police.gov.bd/ [Accessed 11 16, 2017].

Corruption in Bangladesh, 2017. Available from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corruption_in_Bangladesh [Accessed 11 16, 2017].

Cyber Stalking: Only Fast Redress and Immediate Legal Recourse can Ensure Web Safety, 2016. Dhaka, Bangladesh. Available from http://www.theindependentbd.com/printversion/details/69438 [Accessed 11 16, 2017].

Extortion Allegation against Police, 2017. Dhaka. Available from http://www.theindependentbd.com/arcprint/details/99085/2017-06-13 [Accessed 11 16, 2017].

Extra-Judicial Killings from 2001 – 2017, 2017. Dhaka, Bangladesh. Available from http://odhikar.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Statistics_EJK_2001-2017-Janu-Feb.pdf [Accessed 11 16, 2017].

Forced Disappearances: Alleged Abduction by Law Enforcement Officials, 2014. Forced disappearances: Alleged abduction by law enforcement officials. Dhaka: Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK).

Hashmi, T., 2017. Corruption in Bangladesh: Perceptions vs. Reality. Dhaka, Bangladesh. Available from http://www.thedailystar.net/op-ed/corruption-bangladesh-perceptions-vs-reality-1355818 [Accessed 11 16, 2017].

Hayat, P., 2017. Cyber stalking: An irresistible itch. Dhaka, Bangladesh. Available from http://www.observerbd.com/index.php [Accessed 11 17, 2017].

Human Rights Day: Culture of Impunity Must be Stopped, 2016. Human rights day: Culture of impunity must be stopped. Dhaka: The Daily Star.

Hussain, M., 2016. Enforced Disappearances Rise in Bangladesh. Voice of America. Available from https://www.voanews.com/a/enforced-disappearances-rise-in-bangladesh/3574161.html [Accessed 11 16, 2017].

Islam, R., 2017. The SI denied the allegations and said the pair was for riding unlicensed motorbikes. Dhaka, Bangladesh. Available from http://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/nation/2017/09/08/police-accused-of-confining-taking-extortion-from-two-businessmen-in-feni/ [Accessed 11 16, 2017].

Kamruzzaman, M., M. Khan and S.K. Das, 2016. Extrajudicial killings: The violation of human rights in Bangladesh. International Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, 2(4): 20-28.

Khan, M.B., 2015. Trends and patterns of crimes in Dhaka City: An analysis of recent cases. BEST: International Journal of Humanities, Arts,Medicine and Sciences, 3(10): 87-96.

Khan, M.B. and M. Kamruzzaman, 2010. The present vulnerability to female suicide and homicide in Bangladesh: An analysis of recent cases. Empowerment: A Journal of Women for Women, 17: 79-86.

Khan, M.B., M.A. Rahman and M.A. Saadi, 2009. A study on fear of crime in Tangail Municipality. Journal of Socioeconomic Research and Development, 6(4): 617-623.

Khan, N.T., A. Begum, T.M. Chowdhury, B.K. Das, F. Shahid, S. Kabir and M. Begum, 2017. Vilence against women in Bangladesh. Delta Medical College Journal, 5(1): 25-29.

Khandaker, M.E., 2017. Five Arrested for Demanding Extortion. Bangladesh. Available from http://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/crime/2017/05/01/five-arrested-demanding-extortion/ [Accessed 5 16, 2017].

Miah, M.A., 2014. Crime. Dhaka, Banglapedia: National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh.

Odhikar, 2015. Statement on the international week of the disappeared.  [Accessed 11 16, 2017].

Paranjape, D.N., 2005. Criminology and penology. Allahabad: Central Law Publications.

Police Officer Tried to Blackmail Bangladesh Bank Official Threatening Yaba Taint, 2016. Dhaka, Bangladesh. Available from https://bdnews24.com/bangladesh/2016/01/11/police-officer-tried-to-blackmail-bangladesh-bank-official-threatening-yaba-taint [Accessed 11 16, 2016].

Postmodernist School (Criminology), 2018. Available from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postmodernist_school_(criminology [Accessed 11 17, 2017].

Rahman, M.A. and S. Sultana, 2015. Software piracy in Bangladesh: the Student perceptions study on two selected public universities in Dhaka City. Manarat International University Studies, 4(1): 148-157.

Regional Highlights, 2017. Regional highlights. International Narcotics Control Board. Retrieved from https://www.incb.org/documents/Publications/AnnualReports/AR2016/LAUNCH/RegionalHighlights.pdf. [Accessed 11 15, 2017].

The Prevention of Corruption Act 1947, 1947. Available from http://bdlaws.minlaw.gov.bd/print_sections_all.php?id=217.

The World Factbook, 2017. The world factbook. Washington D.C: Central Intelligance Agency (CIA). Available from https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/resources/the-world-factbook/geos/print_bg.html.