Abstract
Much of the existing literature on young people in conflict zones has concentrated on violence and peace building. Little, if any at all, has discussed their involvement in regular crime, how to prevent it and the preventive role of the community. It is well established that civil war societies experience a dramatic increase in crime rates during and after the war. Syria is no exception. With a rise in crime since the eruption of the civil war in 2012, the official statements of the Syrian government indicate that youth crime has quadrupled. Coinciding with international and humanitarian reports, these statements attribute such a rise to socio-economic factors. This not only threatens the wellbeing of the youth and their future opportunities, but also places the development and the future stability of the country at stake since their impact is likely to be evident during the coming decades. Therefore, there is a need today to start a conversation on a national level in Syria about youth offending and seek humane approaches by involving the Syrian community and this thesis aims to inform such a conversation.
This thesis seeks to explore three crucial points. First, whether there has been or will be a rise in youth crime in Syria. Second, the thesis will provide an account of the factors that may have caused this rise. Third, in response to the collapse of the Syrian justice system and its inefficiency in dealing with the rising crime rates, the thesis will explore community crime prevention and what means suggest themselves as likely to be most effective based on existing literature and the original data of the thesis. This will lead to a discussion on the future desistence of young Syrians from offending and the legitimacy of community crime prevention, using civil society organisations and community police as case studies.
The study draws on 30 semi-structured interviews with practitioners and 50 surveys questionnaires that were responded to by young Syrians between the age of 16 to 24. It engages with the opinion of both practitioners and respondents on key concepts and issues such as youth crime, community crime prevention and its legitimacy. The key findings suggest that youth crime has risen since the beginning of the war, and this is unlikely to change once a ceasefire is declared. The study also indicates that while community crime prevention among young offenders in Syria has a potential, its preventive role is subject to questions of its legitimacy and which community agencies are capable of assuming such a preventive role. The findings also challenge the concept of legitimacy that is based upon consensus, concluding that the legitimacy of community crime prevention in Syria draws from necessity rather than a mutual recognition between the state and the community.