"The Victims of Crime vs. The Criminals" Debate, Part I: The Rationale Behind My Work

There has been an ongoing debate for a while now, and you see it each time someone tries to lend a helping hand to a person convicted of a crime.

They say do not help them. What about helping the victim?

Do not feel sorry for them, what about the victim?

It seems that when a person commits an offence they seize to be human, they must be detonated, removed from the face of the earth, rot in jail, etc.

Having had time to work closely with both criminal offenders and victims in the criminal justice system, I realised that we could tackle the issue from various points of perception. I have had the opportunity to converse with murderers, rapists, and kidnappers, and I was just intrigued about how many of these offences could have been avoided.

In our country, Zimbabwe, most murders are linked to witchcraft practices, and surprisingly, the murderers are not the people accused of doing the witchcraft but those who are accusing someone of practising witchcraft in the family. The person is often accused of causing bad luck in the family, killing family members through rituals, etc. Most murders in Zimbabwe related to witchcraft stem from a confrontational base. A whole family can murder one person, trying to force them to testify or go to a shrine to confess.

A large percentage of murders in Zimbabwe are seemingly over petty issues, like a newspaper headline read, “Man killed over $1.” “Or father kills son over not attending to a head of cattle.”. ”Most of these killings are culpable in nature and lack the intention required for the actual offence of murder.

In many rape cases, it is mostly family members who are raped, especially children. This worrisome habit is increasing, and the rate at which rape is occurring is quadrupling.

We spoke of the viewpoint of others that the rapist should be castrated, they should rot in jail, and they do not deserve a second chance in our society. Until such a notion is passed as law in our country and the sentence for rape is increased in that way. I am personally interested in dealing with the situation at hand. Most rape offenders will be out after 20 or so years, and most murderers will be out between 20 and 30 years. I am interested at this point in who they are coming out as. Are they (i) a changed man or (ii) a bitter, much angrier, more criminally connected individual who will unleash his wrath on the community? Most prison sentences lapse, and eventually these people come out. As we push for the notion of castration, for instance, who is watching over the ones that are coming out now? Who is continuing with the help, and rehabilitation, since most are frankly coming out to no one and nothing but a criminal record? I tell you most after 5 years will be undesirable, living homeless and with the potential of perpetrating more offences for survival.

The ZPCS does not go much at length with released prisoners, and I don’t think there is much of a problem if certain individuals decide to continue with the help.

The questions we ask a soon-to-be-released prisoner are;

i) Where are you going?

ii) Who is going to be supporting you until you get back on your feet?

iii) Do you have prospects for job opportunities?

iv) With the help of professionals, we also study and assess the mental disposition and refer where appropriate.

If all the above questions are 'NOs,” don’t people think that this person may be desperate and dangerous sooner or later if they have the disposition because others, despite their condition, will not commit an offence.

If our job is to help such people find stable jobs, shelter, and decent companions to hang out with, is it so bad?

In this line of work, I have met truly dedicated individuals who are pastors and chaplains who visit people in prisons. They preach the gospel to them.

They bring them soap, food, and love.

Should we tell them to stop?

I have also visited prison with people whose loved ones are still in prison for rape or murder. Murderers and rapists are humans too, and the testimonies will make you cry. 

When we talk about root causes, we want to find out what caused A to rape his daughter, for instance. Everyone is responsible for their actions I have written about this before: a reasonable, sane person would never rape his daughter, or anyone else. So what could have caused it? In Shona, we exclaim and say “vapindwa neiko” or “vanga vapindwa neiko”?

In Zimbabwe, most rape cases, as I said above are within the family compound.

Secondly, the highest rape cases are ambushes by thugs who are raiding people in the bushes, in unsafe places, or even breaking into homes and stealing and raping their victims.

There are many rape cases; however, many young girls, babies, women, young boys, and men are not reported for fear of judgement. Meaning the stats are higher than published.

Is it so bad when people suggest finding reasons, triggers, and root causes for the surge in offences while at the same time assisting the released person so that he will be less of a threat to society?

i. Is this not a way of preventing crime?

ii. Is this not looking up to society?

iii. Is this not a form of reducing future victims?

The criminal justice system is very broad and sophisticated. It starts at the very moment of reasonable suspicion, and when a person is convicted, it never ends because of the criminal record. The actors stirring in the criminal Justice system movie are; the accused, the accused released on bail pending trial, the accused in prison waiting for trial, those warned & and cautioned by court, those tried, yet to receive their judgement’ and those convicted and yet to receive their sentence, those convicted & in prison, convicted & out on bail pending appeal, convicted & doing community service, convicted & paying up restitution, victims whose cases are on remand pending further investigations, victims whose cases have been stood-down because the state has not put its house in order, complainants whose case was dismissed for lack of evidence when they were offended, complainants whose cases were dealt with speedily, complainants whose cases are unreasonably delayed, complainants whose accused has received their sentence and are happy with the outcome, complainants who are not happy with the outcome and feel that they were betrayed by the criminal justice system. Other actors include correctional officers, and police officers; they are Minerals, CID, PISI, detectives, court orderlies, VFU officers, judges, magistrates, prosecutors, psychiatrists, social workers, doctors, animal welfare lawyers, defence lawyers, NGO, the legislative branch that drafts the law, corruption in and out of courts, local chiefs and headmen, villagers, the community, and many many more players and aspects involved in the criminal justice system.

There are also many people and organisations working against any injustices in these spheres, all in the hope that our criminal justice system is fair and just.

However, if you happen to work with criminals, then you will be lambasted.

I don’t think that one person can take up all the above issues and start speaking and talking about them.

People do not just wake up and decide, Oh wow, I want to work in charity with the blind or the handicapped. Stemming from the people I have interacted with, it is because they have lived experience and are connected to that area because of their lived passion, and they want to execute it and ease the burden for others the best way they know how.

All these people can co-exist and work in harmony without taking anything away from the areas others are working on or areas others think should be the priority.

I always feel like most people running grassroots charity organisations are working with their resources, and one special ingredient is love and time spent with the vulnerable. No one is going to randomly choose a niche area and spend years working relentlessly on it because.

So in life, there are people who connect with accused persons or convicted criminals because maybe because he too was in prison, some people will connect with victims of offences, some will want to advocate against corruption and injustices in the criminal justice system, some will work on GBV issues, and some will work with children involved in the criminal justice system.

I feel like it’s a level playing field instead of attacking others without facts, and background knowledge of the matter, or knowing nothing that could have transpired later could inspire the wrong narrative. If you feel like there is a grey area in the scope of victims of crime, why not start your initiative to help them? Commenting on social media without action will not help. Convicted and accused persons are feared by many, and I saw a grey area in that. That fear takes away so much from them in terms of advice and other forms of help. I was touched by the stories, and I thought I could help them become better people. In no way did I ever think I was taking away from victims of crime. I thought the initiative could reduce crime.

The health system is vast, like the criminal justice system. Sometimes when I am doing my work and someone pops in under my posts and comments, what about the victims? To me, it’s like many asking an optometrist why you aren’t doing teeth. Does it mean dental health is less important? Still, in the health system, doctors treat accused and convicted people sometimes correctional officers are in hospitals guarding an accused, which can potentially traumatise other patients seeing a gun when they are supposed to be receiving treatment, healing, and recovering. Should doctors stop treating accused and convicted people?

The problem starts when we see accused persons and convicted people as less human than we are. Unfortunately because of the firmament, we are stuck together here. So even if we build large prisons, with strong security in some countries many prisoners have escaped after earthquakes and other natural disasters. What I am saying is even with our prisons in place and we lock the criminals in there forever let us deal with root causes provide mental health treatment, and rehabilitate the mind. So that when an earthquake hits we have reformed people, not ruthless man-made monsters facing those open spaces ready to escape back into society.

In conclusion, I would like to make it clear that organisations and individuals working with accused persons/convicted/incarcerated individuals can co-exist with organisations, and individuals working with victims of crime. I believe the goal is the same. I however I chose to be a re-entry advocate and hence most if not all of my content will be inspired by individuals who are accused/convicted or incarcerated and their families and communities. I do this because I feel these stories are not talked about often and because of that there are many misconceptions spread that are worsening the situation instead of easing the societal ills we are all suffering.