Child Crimes in Bangladesh
In Bangladesh an estimated 55,000–85,000 children are believed to be involved with criminal gangs engaged in arms and drug trading. They carry pistols, revolvers, bullets, pipe guns, short guns, cut-rifles, AK-38’s, SMG’s, hand bombs, knives, swords and razors.
The children who live on the streets, in squat or in low-income settlements
involved with activities of carrying firearms and these children are stigmatized by the society. Adult criminals and organized crime syndicates use children to carry out such acts and they confront the law and punishment. More girls involve themselves with criminal activities than boys due to poverty. The children face difficulties to manage a suitable work as they are unskilled. Sometimes they have to starve due to unemployment and compel to involve themselves in criminal activities. Some street children have no parents or guardians and they have to manage food, shelter and clothes for themselves by any necessary means. The criminals try to allure them into committing criminal activities in exchange for food, shelter, and money. The drug smugglers give the children more money than they get from daily labor and more cases they became addicted to drugs. Sometimes the criminal groups engaged the children in theft, vandalism, and mugging. Some involve in criminal activities because their senior family members are already involved with these activities and they (children) are encouraged to do the criminal acts. Common criminal activities include drug addiction (44%), theft (21%), trafficking (14%) etc. In the big cities the poor children see that some people became rich by the criminal activities and they are honored in the society. Some children take criminal activities to become rich in illegal ways. To keep the children free from criminal activities we need to take the following steps (An Assessment Study for Children at Risk of Coming in Contact With Criminal