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Anastasia Balezdrova

A huge jump in crime in 2011 has been reported by the Greek police. According to them, 11 thefts are carried out in the country every hour, the perpetrators of which operate in a more cruel way. There has also been a huge increase in the number of murders.

GRReporter turned to the longtime professor of criminology at the University of Athens Yiannis Panousis for comment. He analyzed the problem and stressed the need to strengthen the trust in democratic institutions. 

Mr. Panousis, what caused the surge in crime? How much is the crisis to blame for this?

Unfortunately, we have no data on the qualitative characteristics of crime. It is not enough to know whether there are ten murders more. The age of the offender and victim, the cause, the time, their relationship, etc. are also important.

But the overall increase in crime is related to social lawlessness, corruption, political instability and to a system in which criminal groups believe that they are faced with a largely ineffective state power and a weak democracy.

The economic crisis may be the reason for certain crimes related to survival but not for the actions of someone who kills a street kiosk owner or rapes a mother before the eyes of her children. I think it is wrong to associate all crimes with the crisis because it can lead to stereotypes like, for example, that one million poor people are one million potential criminals.

In addition to theft and robbery, the number of murders has also increased. What has caused this?

In my opinion, the crimes against property are not the most critical variable, although they cause uncertainty and financial loss to their victims. The main issue is the loss of value of human life. I am talking about cases when three men with guns in their hands break into the house of an elderly man to rob him and kill him. This means that a specific group of criminals, who may not be Greeks, are not interested in who the victim is and what the price of his or her life is. Maybe they behave that way because this is the attitude to life in the countries they come from. But this attitude cannot be the same in Greece.

A party leader has almost proposed that citizens be allowed to carry guns to protect themselves and their families from attackers. The statement was clearly addressed to a particular audience, but there were other voices in favour of this proposal. Is taking the law into one’s own hands a solution?

As I said, noone is observing the laws in Greece. The free possession of a gun is not effective in fighting crime. Even if you have a gun by your head, if three people come while you are sleeping, you cannot do anything. Second, having a gun does not mean you are mentally ready to shoot and kill. These are two very different things. Third, international studies show that when the potential victim has a gun, the collision with the attacker will surely result in bloodshed. And the result could be different. If someone breaks into your house with a knife and you have a gun, one of the people will be killed. The same will happen if the attacker has a shot gun and you hold a knife.

Therefore, it would only be a serious blow to democracy and its institutions and I do not think it will be efficient as a measure. Not to mention that taking the law into one’s own hands in general leads us to situations like in the movies about the Far East and other examples of coexistence.

What measures could help reduce crime?

I am glad you are asking me about the measures that could reduce crime, because some think it could disappear. But I would rather start with preconditions. Some would suggest increasing the number of police officers. From the moment that citizens stop cooperating with the police. because they follow ideology, that it is bad and not a democratic institution.

I mean if we fail to agree on certain things. One of them is the law. As in Greece, everyone thinks that crime is what he himself considers a crime, not what is described in the Penal Code. Let us make it clear that we are concerned about the damage to everyone, not just to the people we do not like. By this, I mean the attitude of as if nothing happened when a rich man or a journalist is killed. In Greece, we found democracy, when they started to express acts of violence against politicians. As if democracy had not been hurt until then.

Once we agree that all should be punished and stop saying, "This is a crime, but ..." "This is violence, but ..." and stop taking into account who did it and against whom, then we could discuss the technical issues about whether we should have better and more effective police, better training, better justice and everything else. But if you do not believe in democracy and think that the police officer is a "cop, killer, boar" and that the judge is corrupt, the Minister is such and such, then everyone will take a gun and solve their problems as they like. So, I think the issue of trust in democracy is much more important than the effectiveness of the police.

What do you think about the increasing attacks on politicians these days, which are also expected during the parades to celebrate the national holiday of March 25?