Prof. Muratbegović: Let's not neglect the police's performance, we need a probation strategy – supervising convicted offenders

(Patria) - Elmedin Muratbegović, criminologist, Full Professor at the Faculty of Criminal Justice, Criminology and Security Studies of the University of Sarajevo, speaking on the current topic of the security situation in KS and recidivists in committing criminal offenses, proposed a new strategy of criminal control over offenders in the form of a probation service, and gave his opinion on the work of the police in the Canton of Sarajevo.

Speaking about the problem of recidivism, i.e., repeat offenders in committing criminal offenses and referring to the saying "previously known to the police," Prof. Muratbegović explained that this is a common formulation when describing repeat offenders, because recidivists are precisely the most frequent perpetrators of serious criminal offenses worldwide, including in the city of Sarajevo.

"Unfortunately, it has become quite normal when someone describes to you the perpetrator of a brutal murder, a planned theft, or some other serious criminal offense to state that the person has been punished before. Namely, it has become almost commonplace for recidivists to commit new criminal offenses whenever they are at liberty, and this should not be viewed as a phenomenon exclusively related to BiH.

Simply, they build their criminal careers even in this way. This does not surprise me. A large number of them serve their sentences in full or are released on parole and most often commit a new criminal offense very quickly. What we should ask ourselves is: why is this so and what should be done?

Perhaps it is time to consider introducing probation, as conditional or supervised liberty for finally convicted perpetrators of criminal offenses, during which so-called "probation officers" carry out procedures aimed at the resocialization of convicts, reducing the risk of committing a new criminal offense, and ultimately protecting the social community itself.

The problem arises when prisoners on parole come into a local community where no one is strictly responsible for monitoring their behavior. We forget that these individuals are not free at that moment, but their freedom is conditional on very precise rules that they must respect, because if they repeat the offense, they return to prison.

In addition, for effective prevention of criminal offenses in the earliest stages of their occurrence, it would be necessary to grant social workers and other professionals in guardianship authorities the status of official persons, as was done in the Republic of Croatia three years ago. This entails greater protection for social workers, but also greater responsibility.

In this way, cases of domestic violence can be prevented in their earliest stages, as well as cases of risky behavior of students generated by parental neglect and the like.

Also, social work is very important to us in the complex chain of formal social control services, because social histories prepared by social workers are very often used as decisive facts in proceedings where children or young people have committed a criminal offense.

Prof. Muratbegović reiterated that it is necessary to strengthen the capacities of the police, in several domains, and especially in the fight against cybercrime.

"First, I want to say that we have very high-quality experts in our police force whose performance we often ignore and neglect. I think the time is slowly passing when chaos and unhealthy seniority dominated our police force, where young police officers were drowned in routine grayness. The police need to be helped to perform their job effectively.

One of the measures I have been advocating since 2002, when I was a member of the Independent Board for the Election of the Police Commissioner in KS, is that we must enable such ranking and advancement of police officers that will give them the opportunity to specialize in one area and advance in that area. In this way, society gains true experts. This is practically impossible now and largely makes the police in KS less effective compared to their real capacities and possibilities.

On the other hand, we must strengthen the police's capacities in the segment of cybercrime. This is the key security challenge today, and investment in young people within the police system and their training is needed here. Security threats today are more common in the online than in the offline world. In the KS police, 4 positions for cybercrime investigators are systematized. These positions should be filled as soon as possible with quality solutions," believes Prof. Muratbegović.