Types of Crime victims in Bangladesh

Benjamin Mendelson (1963), one of the pioneers of victimology, developed a typology of victims in terms of their degree of guilt in the perpetration of crime (quoted by Frank E. Hagan, 1989):
i) The completely innocent victim, such as a child or an unconscious person.
ii) The victim with minor guilt, such as a woman who provokes a miscarriage and dies as a result.
iii) The victim as guilty as offender, such as in cases of suicide and euthanasia.

Innocent Crime Victimization of Bangladesh

The incidents where the victims of the event have no relation to the event beforehand but are fallen victims of the events suddenly occurred are known as innocent victimization. Events of natural catastrophe, political insurgency, war, mass violence, communal riots, etc. cause such victimization. Such victims may have cost nearest and dearest ones to survive with. On the other hand, from the view-point of radical criminology, when any state as the ultimate guardian can not make sure the basic social security of its people, then this type of events usually takes place as defective system of the society.

Victimless Crime of Bangladesh

A criminal event in which the victim of the incident himself is the offender is the victimless crime. As the offender goes against his/her own interest causing harm to ownself is considered as victimless crime. The victim is treating himself as the offender here. The victim of this crime is solely responsible for the event of his victimization. Abortion, attempt to suicide, suicide are some of the discussed events of this type.

Organized Crime of Bangladesh

A form of offence, which is related to the course of illegal trade and committed by a group of offenders in syndicate form widely for economic gain, is called the organized crime. Usually, organized crime takes place in the form of gang criminality, which is a part of organized crime. Drugs, illegal arms dealing, illegal storage, etc. are the highlighted areas for this crime.

Political crime of Bangladesh

Encompassing any corporate or individual criminal activity marked by fraud and deception is generally indicated as white-collar crime. The Offences by the government/ ruling class is similar to those kinds, because these are taken part in the ground of violence by the ruling class people in the society such as, the bureaucrats, business magnet and high profile intellectual persons who are usually the law makers or enforcers. Accomplishing the event with the mechanism of abusing auithority of law enforcement agencies like police either through direct contact or through the political influence these types of offences usually take place. Police brutality are some the offences that may be highlighted here.

Public Order Crime of Bangladesh

The violation of law by any one to the others, which is threatening to public tranquility in normal course of life or livelihood and consequent upon which a mental stress leads to a public disorder, is termed public order crime.  Harassment, threat, illegal trespass, etc. are treated as the public order crimes.

Property Crime of Bangladesh

Usually, property crimes are related to the annihilation of the property or material substances of human. Any economic loss of human being caused by a perpetrator can be termed as a property crime. The very concept denotes an offence which is specifically related to property in possession of human and which is snatched away by any perpetrator. Here, the offences like arson, subscription, theft, bribery, extortion, corruption, embezzlement, fraud, cheating, money laundering, counterfeit of coin, hijacking, looting, robbery, mugging, etc. have been treated as property crime.

Violent Crime of Bangladesh

There are numerous contradictory definitions of criminal violence as a type of behavior. Violent crime involves the use of the threat or coerce on a victim by an offender and additionally with extreme violence to the end of physical damage to the victim. In the present index the typology of violent crimes include murder, aggravated assault, sexual crime, kidnapping and organizational violence.

Types of crime in Bangladesh

Crime Index Bangladesh 07’ categorizes the present committed crime in Bangladesh. It classifies crimes in Bangladesh into eight types which are noted below:

Crime Index Bangladesh perspective

Emphasizing the need for statistics in the field of criminology Donald Taft (Criminology, 4th ed.) observed that quantification which includes counting, measuring, and collating the phenomena under study is the basic process in modern scientific approach to criminal science. Crime statistics involve compiling crime-record in order to relate them to time, place and circumstances. It also depicts the picture of distribution of crimes in different areas, regions, and locations (N. V. Paranjape, 2005). In our country, the most widely used source of data on crime studies is known as crime statistics gathered by law enforcing agencies,

Factors of crime in Bangladesh

There are six main factors of crime in Bangladesh, which include economic factor, cultural factor, political factor, social factor, geographical factor, and religious factor. Detail of each factor has been narrated below:

Economic factor
Bangladesh is a country of third world. A big portion of its inhabitants live under the line of poverty. Around ten percent of the total population owns about ninety percent wealth of the country. Presently per capita income is about US$ 550. Unplanned urbanization and industrialization create concentration of wealth. The entire commercial and trade related financial transactions tend to few billions.

The effects of Crime victimization in Bangladesh

Putwain and Sammons (2002), in their book Psychology and Crime, noted that, “It is almost inevitable that a person will experience some degree of distress as a result of being victimized, especially if the crime is a violent one. Kahn (1984) identifies a large number of possible responses to victimization including depression, anxiety, paranoia, shock and anger. Davis and Friedman (1985) found that 75 percent of a sample of burglary victims reported psychological symptoms including anxiety and disturbed sleep, three weeks after the offence. Not surprisingly, one of the main determinants of a victim’s reaction is the seriousness of the crime. However, it should be noted that people vary in the extent to which they are adversely affected by victimization. Two important variables which affect how a person will be affected by victimization are belief in a just world and locus of control.

Gender Involving with crime in Bangladesh

Criminal statistics consistently report a far higher prevalence of offending amongst males than females. Again, this varies by type of offence, so whilst the vast majority of burglaries, robberies and violent crimes are committed by men, gender differences are less marked for theft and fraud. There are a number of possible reasons for this. One is that gender differences in offending reflect constitutional differences between males and females. This is more likely to be the case for personal and violent crimes where gender differences are most marked.

Age of Crime in Bangladesh

Age seems to be an important correlate of offending. As discussed above, surveys of young people have indicated that criminal acts are relatively common amongst this group. Generally offending commences in adolescence, rises steadily and peaks around the age of 18, falling sharply thereafter. However, there are marked variations if different types of crime are accounted for. Property-related crimes such as theft follow the pattern just described whereas crimes like fraud and embezzlement are for more likely to be committed by older adults.

Socio-economic status of Crime of Bangladesh

It is widely believed that there is an inverse relationship between socio-economic status (SES) and criminality. That is, people from low-SES backgrounds are over-represented amongst the population of offenders. For example, stereotypical views of “the criminal” frequently include the motion that they are working classes. Whilst some research supports the idea that low SES is associated with criminality, the relationship between offending and SES is weaker than many people assume.

Social Definition of Crime

Though ‘crime’ refers to a multidimensional thinking of committing any act which has harmful effect and legal sanction for the violation of law but it could be explored from different perspectives observed in a society. The social definition of crime could be referred to the following: ‘’Any anti-social act which penetrates the statuesque of the society due to the action of the individual for the disintegration of himself to the society and if the act causes any violation of social order or the social norms, that specified act can be treated as a crime.’ (Giddens, 2006) Usually, the penalty or sanctions for the misdeeds are applied by the society either formally or informally to the violator of the social order to reinforce the social norms. Laws are the social norms defined and enforced by the governments of any country to restrict those anti-social behaviors, which are meant as crimes.