KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 9 — Existing laws regarding children involved in crime are too focused on punitive measures and needs to be relooked at, Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Zahid Hamidi said today.
Zahid added that rehabilitation should be the focus in order to prevent children from committing more serious crimes in future.
“If we place the teenagers and children in prison, this will lead them to learn to do serious crimes.
“Prison will be an institution to train juveniles to do heavier crimes. Therefore, we separate them from the prisons,” he told a news conference after launching a convention on transformation measures towards a crime-free generation here.
Zahid who is also home minister was responding to news reports on 159 children arrested under the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012 (Sosma) and the Prevention of Crime Act 1959.
He admitted that existing laws could be improved.
He also said the curricula offered at juvenile correctional institutions such as the Henry Gurney School, was best suited for rehabilitating children involved in crime.
Zahid said children placed in the juvenile institutions were able to sit for their school assessment examinations, such as the Form Three Assessment and the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia.
He added that few who graduated from such facilities returned to a life of crime.
“The rate of recidivism is low, negligible,” he said.
Bok Siew Mun, chairman of the Kuala Lumpur chapter of the Malaysia Crime Prevention Foundation who also attended the convention, urged the Education Ministry to introduce crime prevention education syllabus in schools in order to inculcate the ethical and moral values in students.
He said such a syllabus should also be included in the training module for teachers for them to be more aware of crime prevention.
“We call for the education ministry to include these syllabus as this need to be discussed with the pupils, and teachers need to be the experts in crime prevention.
“I hope the government would be able to fulfill this so that through the Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya education department, we would be able to approach the students and benefit them extensively,” he said at the launch.
Addressing the 1,700 attendees, Bok said while schools give great focus on academic achievements, this limits the chance for teachers to emphasise on moral and ethical or civic studies of the students.
He said the issues on sex, crime, violence and drugs prevention must be discussed with school students in efforts to reduce and prevent crime acts.
“We may think children do not know these topics, but many of them have already been exposed on it, whether at home, in their neighbourhood, or from the internet.
“The syllabus proposed in schools would have a positive impact on the children, and this would too require the cooperation of all parties to participate in crime participation,” he said.
Earlier in the convention, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) child law centre chairman Nadzriah Ahmad revealed the top reasons for students to commit crime were to seek excitement, curiosity, and boredom.
“In order to tackle the issue, schools and teachers were urged to make school activities more interesting for children to look forward to attend school and be involved in different activities such as sports,” Nadzriah said of a study undertaken by UiTM during a “Children and Violence” session.
