50.4 per cent of surveyed inmates say lack of jobs leads to repeat offence

AMMAN — A total of one million parties perpetrated crimes in Jordan between 2013 and 2017, a Justice Ministry study showed on Saturday. 

The study showed that 80.5 per cent of perpetrators were males and that the majority of the inmates at the reform and rehabilitation centres were between 18 and 41 years old, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported. 

The study titled “Crime, Recidivism, and Confrontation Strategies in Jordanian Society” began in mid-2018 and ended in mid-2021.

The study distributed questionnaires to 707 out of the 5,193 inmates at five reform and rehabilitation centres across the Kingdom. The questionnaires aimed to determine inmates’ opinions and orientations on various personal, social, educational and economic topics, in addition to recidivism rates and inmates’ expectations after leaving the centres. 

The questionnaire results found that 50.4 per cent of the surveyed inmates said they repeated offences in the absence of job opportunities, 30.4 per cent for securing livelihoods and 36.4 per cent attributed recommitting offences to continuing their relations with bad company after leaving the centre. 

The study showed that the number of charges between 2013 and 2017 for all types of murder amounted to 3,409 cases, all types of abuse to 136,284 cases, cheque cases to 104,063, theft and robbery amounted to 59,972, kidnapping to 941, rape to 1,215 cases and 681 cases for office misuse. 

The report also pointed out that 54.7 per cent of the surveyed inmates were drug and alcohol abusers, including 14.8 per cent who first used drugs before the age of 18.

About 20 per cent of those who committed crimes attributed it to poverty, 17.7 per cent to debts, 12.4 per cent to bad company, 10.5 per cent to drug abuse, 7.1 per cent to anger and 6.8 per cent attributed their crimes to revenge and human instincts.

The most common cases among females were bad cheques and financial issues, amounting to 49.1 per cent of female crimes, followed by cases of theft, robbery, bribe and fraud, amounting to 16.4 per cent, according to the study. The study also showed that 42.9 per cent of female inmates first used drugs between the age of nine and 13.