Final Program Evaluation: Increasing Police Numbers to Reduce Juvenile Crime in the UAE

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Abstract

This proposal suggests that increasing the number of police officer in the UAE will help in managing the rising cases of Juvenile delinquency. The proposal however recognizes that beyond police intervention, the real causes of juvenile delinquent behavior are entrenched in the society.

The police can therefore only play a complimentary role, but other people in the society (most especially parents) need to play their rightful role in guiding and disciplining their children.

Introduction

As a fairly new state that was established in 1971, the United Arabs Emirates (UAE) is undergoing social challenges that other countries have and still encounter in development. One such social challenge is the rising cases of crimes committed by young people under the age of 18 years. In 2008 for example, 315 crimes committed by underage persons were reported (Abiad and Mansoor 303).

Five years earlier in 2003, only 240 cases of similar nature had been reported. Among some of the reasons cited for the increasing rate of juvenile delinquency include the inability of the criminal justice system to adapt to changes brought about by a changing society, which has been infiltrated by immigrants from different social and cultural backgrounds (Abiad and Mansoor 303).

Managing Juvenile Crime in the UAE

The UAE has adopted international standards in the management of criminal justice for underage offenders. Specifically, the UAE uses the 1976 Federal Law no. 9 to manage juvenile crime (UAE Embassy 10). In accordance with the federal law, juvenile offenders are entitled to human treatment during questioning, trial and the entire legal process.

The law further prohibits the justice system from punishing juvenile offenders with financial penalties, death or imprisonment; further, repeat juvenile crimes are not recognized in the UAE justice system. This then means that a repeat juvenile offender is treated like a first time offender by the justice system (UAE Embassy 10).

To afford juvenile offenders the humane treatment that corresponds with their age, only the public prosecutor’s office and other selected specialized departments have the mandate to handle juvenile crime cases (UAE Embassy 10).

The maximum sentencing of a juvenile offender is one and a half years, which the offender serves in a rehabilitation or detention centre specifically meant for underage offenders (Abiad and Mansoor 310). Observably, the lenient manner in which the criminal justice system handles juvenile crime is arguably encouraging the increase of underage crime.

On one hand, the justice criminal system is not to involve the parents by failing to impose financial penalties on the offenders. Financial penalties would be paid by parents, and would be a reminder that they need to improve on their parenting. On the other hand, the criminal justice system in the UAE seem too lenient on offenders by failing to punish them in a manner that would discourage them from repeat offences.

Hypotheses

Hypothesis 1: Increasing police officers in specific high-rate juvenile delinquency crime areas will significantly decrease criminal activity therein.

Hypothesis 2: Criminal activity in specific high-rate juvenile delinquency crime areas that do not receive more police officers will not register any changes.

Hypothesis 3: A reduction of specific crimes (such as fist fights, sexual molestation) in areas with increased police patrol will lead to less obvious juvenile crimes happening within homes. Such will include consensual sex and increased drug use among minors, which will occur outside the patrolling presence of the police officers.

Methodology

This project will adopt a situational crime prevention approach, whereby, more police officers will patrol specific high-risk areas where acts of juvenile delinquency have occurred in the past and are likely to occur in the future. Such areas will be the experimental locations and in order to avoid intrusion in to otherwise neutral places, the police patrols will not be conducted in schools, or homes.

However, the patrols will be conducted near the school environment especially when the children are going home from school and in targeted residential neighborhoods during weekends and holidays when the children are not attending schools. Other gathering points such as playgrounds or specific alleys will also be identified for patrol by police as possible high-risk crime areas.

The patrolling police officers, and all the reports filed in specific police stations will be this report’s main source of findings. The patrolling police officers will be asked to observe and report any crimes committed by juveniles in their area of patrol.

They will be required to record whether such crime was averted in good time, and if not, if the perpetrators were apprehended. The nature of the crime will also be recorded by the police officer to enable this project determine the prevalence of specific kind of crimes in the UAE.

For comparison reasons, the volume of police on patrol, and the frequency of the patrols in the identified control areas will not be changed. However, police officers on duty will be asked to gauge the incidence of crime therein and report the same in identified police stations.

Additionally, any complaints reported by members of the public in both the areas with increased police patrols and those with ‘normal’ police patrols will be taken into account.

Complaints from the public will be specifically relevant for purposes of supporting or disapproving hypothesis three, which is based on the argument that delinquent behavior on the streets is likely to be substituted with delinquent behavior occurring in indoor environments.

Literature review

Juvenile delinquency in the Arab region has been rated as being less serious when compared to other regions in the world. In the UAE for example, the surge in wealth attained from trading in oil means that young people face lower socio-economic difficulties when compared to their counterparts in poorer nations (Cox, Allen, Hanser, and Conrad 336).

Incidentally, the UAE wealth has attracted migrants who not only bring in different cultures and beliefs, but also contribute to continued urbanization, a rapidly changing social infrastructure, sudden affluence, and “a heterogeneous population” (UN Congress 5).

Consequently, there appears to be a conflict between the new (imported) values and beliefs, and the traditional Arabic values, which are founded in Islam (UN Congress 5). Such conflict brings about confusion, and children are often on the losing end, since their identities are not well formed, and often times, they develop social division depending on one’s origin, sense of belonging and even the kind of upbringing that one is exposed to.

The unstable formative years that children go through has been cited as one of the main reasons why the UAE is witnessing increased cases of juvenile delinquency (Cox et al. 337). Additionally, the busy lifestyles adopted by parents, mean that children no longer have the security and advice that previous generations received from adults in the home environment.

Consequently, most of the vital lessons they learn, are obtained from televisions or from their peers (Cox et al. 338). Unfortunately, not all lessons obtained from such channels are positive; in fact, most of the juvenile delinquent behavior is either done in groups, or is indirectly influenced by the perpetrator’s peers (UN Congress 6).

Commenting about the rising cases of juvenile crime in the Emirates, high ranking police officers seem to stress that the main causes of such crimes stem from the society. The director of the Family Security Department of Human Rights in Dubai Police was for example quoted saying that “broken families and peer pressure were the two main reasons behind juvenile delinquency” (Abiad and Mansoor 304).

Unstable domestic environments (especially among girls), the pursuit of luxury, and drug abuse were other contributing factors to the rising cases of juvenile crime (Abiad and Mansoor 304).

Notably, police officers may not be able to intervene in all social issues that are thought to contribute to juvenile delinquency; however, they play a critical role in identifying the causes for delinquent behavior and by so doing, create knowledge and information that can be utilized by the criminal justice system and other governmental and non-governmental organizations to create societal changes that would impact positively towards the reduction of crimes committed by juveniles.

Notably, juveniles throughout the world are less predictable and exhibit less respect towards police officer on patrol compared to adults (Cox et al. 118). As such, it has been observed that “many youth view the police officer on patrol not as a deterrent to delinquent behavior, but as a challenge to avoid detection and confrontation while loitering at night” (Cox et al. 118).

As such, young people bent on engaging in lawless activities will try to evade the police net in any way possible especially when parental supervision is minimal and negative peer influence overwhelming. Consequently, police officers, even in increased numbers as suggested in the experimental area herein may still have a hard time keeping up with the petty mischief or intricate criminal behaviors meant to evade detection.

Execution of the program

In addition to setting the experimental area and identifying the control area for this project, the police in both cases should take care regarding how they portray themselves to the young people and the community at large. In Australia for example, it has been observed that a majority of young people perceive police officers as agents of harassment rather than agents of protection (McDonald 89).

For such reasons, the police in UAE should adopt a community-friendly approach in the experimental area, through initiatives such as community policing, in order to make themselves acceptable within the target communities.

Being young offenders, and depending on the intensity of the crime committed, police officers should also be advised to consider giving first time offenders an official caution before charging them in a court of law (McDonald 89).

By so doing, the young offenders will have the knowledge that the consequences of engaging in crime are dire, and that the police officers are lenient and willing to help them reform. The officers will need to record all kinds of crimes and the action taken for purposes of obtaining an informative analysis towards the end of the program.

One of the non-punitive approach that police officers can use for first time offenders during the program will involve summoning the parents to the offender and warning them of the consequences that will follow if the offence (or any other crime if committed and detected in future).

By so doing, (Bogenschneider 16) observes that the police would be encouraging strict parenting. However, where such encouragement do not bear fruit, police should treat delinquent behavior seriously by providing definite consequences in order to dissuade the culprits from repeating the same, and deterring others from similar behavior.

Evaluation Plan

The program is expected to run for six months, which will be divided as follows:

Time Length	Start/End date	Activity	Expected outcomes
6 Weeks	Start: Jan 01, 2013 End: Feb 05, 2013	Formative Evaluation: This will evaluate the project to determine whether the plans, activities, procedures and materials are being used as expected.	From the formative evaluation, the program manager will determine whether it is running as initially conceptualized, and based on that he/she may recommend some changes.
24 Weeks	Start: Jan 01, 2013 End: June 30, 2013	Process evaluation: This will continue for the entire duration of the program and will help the program manager determine whether or not the program is having its desired effect. During process evaluation, the manager will identify problems encountered by the increased police officers in the experimental area, evaluate the kind of partnership or lack thereof between the young people, the community and the police officers, and reveal any problem areas that may be the focus of formative evaluation as defined above	The program manager will determine if the project is running as initially conceptualized, and will also identify any snags that may be hindering the optimal performance of the program. At different stages, the manager (and his team) will measure the program outcomes in order to identify any differentials in performance. For example, it would be expected that young people would be less responsive to increased police patrol in the beginning, but this may change as time goes by. Indirect contacts by members of the public will also be measured in order to gauge the level of public response towards the program.
4 Weeks	(1^stoutcome evaluation) Start: 18 Mar. 2013 End: 1 Apr. 2013 2^ndoutcome evaluation: Start: 03 Jun. 2013 End: 17Jun. 2013	Outcome evaluation: This part of the evaluation will seek to measure the program’s progress towards curbing juvenile delinquency. The first outcome evaluation will be conducted halfway through the program period, and the results therein will be used to determine whether the program should be continued or not. Should the outcomes be promising, the program will be allowed to continue. The second part of the outcome evaluation will be conducted towards the end of the 6-months program period.	Through the first outcome evaluation, the program manager will determine if increased police patrols in the experimental area has had any impact on juvenile crime. Based on the outcomes, the program manager will then decide whether to carry on with the program, and if so, he will then carry the second outcome evaluation towards the completion of the program.
4 weeks	Start: 08 Jun. 2013 End: 29 Jun. 2013	Impact evaluation: Here the program manager will evaluate the outcomes of the program and see if they fit within the three identified hypotheses. Additionally, the program manager will identify other emergent themes that may have not been conceptualized during the writing of this proposal.	This evaluation is important to determine if indeed the experimental area has proved that increased police presence can deter juvenile delinquent behavior. The findings in this part may also form the basis for future programs intended to reduce the prevalence of juvenile delinquency. Additionally, the good policing practices identified during the program can be replicated in other law enforcement areas.

Possible outcomes

In the experimental area, it is probable that the level of criminal offences by juveniles will decrease as the program enters its third month. In the beginning of the program however, it is likely that juvenile offenders will try to evade the police net rather than quit their delinquent behaviors.

With an increased police presence however, it would be expected that most such juvenile delinquents will be arrested, in which case some may end up in welfare, criminal courts, or juvenile courts, while other may be informally handled by the police and released depending on the intensity of the crimes committed (Siegel and Welsh 306). In the controlled area however, not much change is expected to happen.

If anything, and if the two areas under investigation in the proposed program are nearby, it would be expected that the controlled area would register an increase in crime as more juvenile offenders would relocate to areas with less intensive police patrols.

To evaluate if such will be the case, the police officers in the controlled area will be requested to identify and record whether any of the juvenile offenders apprehended during the program period are from neighboring areas.

It is also likely that the experimental area will register more juvenile crimes reported by parents or residents, as offenders hide from police presence thus shifting their criminal activities into neighborhoods and homes as hypothesized in the third concept of this proposal.

Proposed Budget

Executing the proposed program is likely to cost the UAE government an estimated $5 million as illustrated in the table below. Since this is an experimental program whose real worth will only be determined after the 6-months period, officers will be obtained from other police departments. They will however need to receive training to equip them with skills needed in handling juvenile crimes. The costs will be allocated as follows:

Description	Estimated Amount ($ millions)
Training 300 police officers to handle juvenile crime in 3 identified experimental areas	1.5
Facilitation fees for six months(Transport, meals, data recording equipments, data analysis and the final report writing)	3.5
Total	5

Conclusion

Curbing the rising cases of juvenile delinquency will take more than a better equipped and responsive justice system; it will need the input from parents, schools, the government and entire communities. While this proposal is cognizant of the fact that curbing juvenile delinquency will require the input of different community stakeholders, it acknowledges the critical role that police officers play in enforcing law and order.

This proposal further acknowledges the deterrent role that police presence has on criminal activity. Based on the two aforementioned police roles therefore, this essay proposes that increasing the number of police officer will play a pivotal role in reducing the rates of juvenile delinquents in the UAE.

Works Cited

Abiad, Nisrine and Mansoor Farkland Zia. Criminal Law and the Rights of the Child in Muslim States: A Comparative and Analytical Perspective. London: BIICL, 2010. Print.

Bogenschneider, Karen 2011, Do We Know Enough to Prevent Youth Crime? Web.

Cox, Steven, Allen Jennifer, Hanser Robert, and Conrad John. Juvenile Justice. 7^th ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2011. Print.

McDonald, John 2004, Police Initiatives in Juvenile Justice. Web.

Siegel, Larry and Welsh Brandon. Juvenile Delinquency: The Core. London: Cengage Learning, 2010. Print.

UAE Embassy 2009, The UAE National Report. Presented in Accordance with Article 15(a) of the Appendix to the Decision of the Human Rights Council. PDF File. Web.

United Nations Secretariat. Prevention of Delinquency, Juvenile Justice and the Protection of the Young: Policy Approaches and Directions. Eighth United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders. United Nations: Havana Cuba, 1999. Print.

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