Atikul Islam

Crimes at the Urban Slum: a Sociological Study on the Crimes Committed at Mohammadpur Geneva Camp, Dhaka, Bangladesh Atikul Islam

The condition of slums is the worst in Bangladesh. According to the survey of the Center for Urban Studies in 2005, there are 3007 slums in Dhaka city with very high population. Their standard of living is the lowest with minimum access to the fundamental rights of the state. Crimes and violence are common phenomena more or less in all slums. Crime and violence are no longer considered just a ?social? or ?law and order? problem, but also as an obstacle to development which erodes the poor's human, physical, and social capital (UN-Habitat Safer Cities, 2002). My study reveals that various types of crimes such as internal violence, theft, robbery, mugging, trafficking, drug addicting, drug dwelling, sexual harassment etc. are committed both by insiders and outsiders at Mohammadpur Geneva Camp. There appears to be a deep lack of trust among the Camp dwellers to the justice system and the police. So sometimes they take law in their hand. Thus, some become top criminals. These crimes identify the slum dwellers as the worst people. These also create a 'climate of fear' both in the slum and neighboring society that is an obstacle to people's social and psychological development.