By Nurdiyanah R. –
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, OCT 9 – The Prison Department for the first time held an intellectual discourse event titled Weak Self-Control and Environmental Factors Against Criminal Behavior located in the Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Islamic Treasure Hall (BKISHHB).
Present as the guest of honor at the event was the Deputy Permanent Secretary (Security and Welfare) at the Ministry of Home Affairs (KHEDN), Dayang Nor Hamidah binti Haji Hamidon.
Also present was the Acting Director of the Prison Department, Awang Bahrin bin Mohd Yassin; Head of the Government Relations and Special Projects Division of the Brunei Islamic Bank Darussalam (BIBD), Haji Mohammad Yusri bin Haji Wahsalfelah, officers and staff of the Prisons Department, KHEDN and BIBD.
A total of 200 people consisting of senior government officials, village chiefs and heads, corporate and academics attended the discourse event delivered by Adjunct Professor, Faculty of Human Ecology, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Datuk Dr Zafari bin Zulkifli.
Among others, Datuk Dr Zafari touched on his experience while conducting some research related to Theory Low Self Control (LSC) introduced by Gottfredson and Hirschi in 1990, where he interviewed 181 male prisoners in Kajang Prison, Selangor over a period of eight months.
As a result of the interview, Datuk Dr Zafari shared among the findings that can be formulated where individuals with weak self-control tend to be involved in various types of crime, such as property crime, violence, bullying, terrorism, extremism, cyber crime and so on.
In addition, Datuk Dr Zafari also shared about the Activity Routine Theory presented by Marcus Felson and Lawrence E. Cohen in 1979, which explained that crime occurs as a result of three main elements which are motivated criminals, suitable targets and lack of control from guardians.
Meanwhile, Awang Bahrin who is also the chairman of the council expressed his gratitude and hoped that through the sharing of such knowledge, all members of the Prison Department would benefit from understanding the importance of improving self-control in a joint effort to combat crime from continuing to increase thus reducing the rate of recidivism which is the re-entry of the offender to prison.
At the same time, Awang Bahrin called for all interested parties to cooperate and continue to mobilize energy in carrying out their entrusted responsibilities towards achieving a responsible society, obeying the laws of the country in addition to contributing to society and the country towards achieving the Brunei Vision 2035.
Through the sharing event, it is hoped that the participants present will be able to understand more deeply the factors that lead to involvement in crime and the social implications as well as preventive measures that can be taken.
The discourse event was implemented with the support of KHEDN’s strategic partner, namely BIBD under the corporate social responsibility initiative as well as their contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).
