Published on November 11 at 09:25 by behavioral scientist Roël Haakmat, this opinion piece frames crime and violence as far broader harms than the immediate physical or material damage inflicted on direct victims. These corrosive social forces erode interpersonal trust, curtail freedom of movement, and fuel widespread uncertainty about collective futures, making a secure Suriname a shared priority for all citizens.
The analysis argues that while robust policing and judicial systems are non-negotiable pillars of public safety, long-term, durable security cannot be achieved through punitive measures alone. It demands targeted investment in upstream prevention, anchored by accessible education, economic stability, and easily available support services for at-risk groups. A key foundational distinction the piece emphasizes is the critical separation between emotion and action: anger is a universal, human feeling, but violence is a deliberate harmful behavior that threatens or harms others, while criminality covers all unlawful acts, including non-violent offenses. Each of these scenarios requires a tailored, proportional response: an angry child needs guided support, a threatened victim requires immediate protection, and a criminal offense merits a targeted judicial intervention.
To address violent behavior at its root, communities must examine how individuals navigate experiences of frustration, rejection, humiliation, and unequal power dynamics. Cultivating emotional awareness – the ability to recognize one’s own feelings, audit one’s actions, assess their impact on others, and take full accountability for harm – must be prioritized in family homes, school settings, and civil society organizations. The piece draws on psychoanalytic frameworks to note that violent conduct is often linked to unprocessed early life experiences or attempts to overcome deep-seated feelings of powerlessness or humiliation, stressing that this contextual understanding never serves as a justification for harm, nor can a single childhood experience fully explain why someone turns to violence. Additional contributing factors include peer group pressure, financial gain, situational opportunity, and the widespread perception that criminal acts will go unpunished.
Child-rearing is positioned as the fundamental bedrock of preventive safety. Children must be taught that feeling anger is valid, but acts of hitting, humiliation, and intimidation cross clear, non-negotiable boundaries. This learning relies on consistent loving attention, predictable routines, and gentle, clear correction, and caregivers deserve formal support when financial stress, burnout, or household conflict erodes their capacity to provide stable care. The composition of a family unit alone does not lead to harmful behavior; the decisive factors are the quality of care a child receives, the support networks available to their household, and the presence of emotional safety in the home. As such, parenting support must be formally integrated into national security policy, with schools, neighborhood organizations, and care providers tasked with identifying early signs of household tension and guiding families to set boundaries without resorting to violence.
The piece explicitly rejects the harmful myth that poverty or unemployment inherently turn people to crime or violence, but notes that precarious livelihoods, high school dropout rates, and systemic social exclusion can create conditions where illegal income streams or violent peer groups appear far more appealing to marginalized young people. Individuals who feel unrecognized by mainstream society are far more vulnerable to predatory offers of cash, protection, and social status from criminal networks. The absence of robust, positive social connections is also identified as a major risk factor: strong community bonds can offer support, set positive behavioral boundaries, and prevent personal crises from escalating out of view, but unregulated peer groups can also normalize harmful norms and actively encourage unlawful acts. Effective prevention, therefore, requires investing in supportive community networks while building young people’s resilience against harmful outside influences. Concrete, actionable measures include targeted guidance for at-risk youth at risk of dropping out of school, accessible vocational training programs, paid apprenticeship placements, and dedicated public spaces for sports and social gatherings where young people can develop their talents. These services require sustained funding and expert, consistent oversight, and policymakers should also systematically study the experiences of young people who thrive despite adverse circumstances to identify and scale up proven protective factors.
The analysis also warns against harmful, stigmatizing over-simplifications of mental health and violence. A psychiatric diagnosis does not inherently make a person dangerous, and attributing violent acts solely to a personality disorder, absent parent, or childhood neglect distorts complex realities and unfairly labels marginalized groups. When threats or violent acts do occur, the focus must remain on the specific, documented harmful behavior, with formal investigations reviewing prior incidents, substance use patterns, current social stressors, available support networks, and appropriate treatment needs. Care services must be paired with clear, enforceable safety agreements, to ensure both human dignity for people accessing support and full protection for potential victims.
The piece further calls on the national government to uphold consistent, transparent enforcement of public rules. State authority loses all public credibility when institutional abuse of power is ignored, or high-profile, influential individuals evade legal accountability. A government that demands accountability from its citizens must itself act transparently and submit to formal public oversight. This requires formal, sustained cross-sector collaboration between the judicial system, education departments, social service agencies, and mental health care providers, with clear written protocols outlining who will intervene during public safety threats, who is tasked with supporting crime victims, and who will oversee long-term aftercare programs. Crime survivors deserve accessible support, dedicated protection, and clear, regular updates on the progress of their legal cases. Successful reintegration after prison also requires advance planning, with timely arrangements for housing, official identity documents, daily structured activities, and required treatment. Probation services can effectively combine formal oversight with practical, supportive guidance to help former offenders take full accountability for their actions and rebuild stable lives.
Finally, the author notes that without reliable, disaggregated public data on crime trends, unmet care needs, and available community services, policy will remain vulnerable to unfounded assumptions and reactive, ad-hoc decision-making driven by high-profile incidents. Policymakers must set clear, measurable targets, assign explicit responsibilities to relevant agencies, and publicly track which interventions deliver tangible results. Success should not be measured by the number of new programs announced, but by timely victim protection, expanded access to support services, and reduced rates of repeat offenses. The voices of crime survivors, young people, and local neighborhood residents must be centered in this process, as their on-the-ground experiences will clearly reveal gaps in service delivery and identify what forms of support communities actually need. True public safety emerges when protection, clear boundaries, and equitable development opportunities reinforce one another. Suriname needs reliable, accountable public institutions and sustained long-term investment in its people, to fulfill the shared collective mission of protecting victims, holding offenders accountable, and preventing future cycles of violence. This work requires coordinated, cohesive policy today, and verifiable, measurable results for all citizens tomorrow.
Veiligheid begint bij bescherming én preventie
