Security analyst Emmanuel Sowatey has identified “certainty of getting caught” and “swiftness of prosecution” as the best crime deterrents.
His comment comes after the Narcotics Control Board (NACOB) donated several expensive items (including furniture, some with a price tag of GHS3,200) confiscated from Night Angels, a shop belonging to jailed Ghanaian/Austrian drug queen Nayele Ametefe, to three rehab centres in Ghana.
The move is meant to deter other drug traffickers as they will not be allowed to enjoy their proceeds.
Speaking to Valentina Ofori-Afriyie on 505 on Class91.3FM on Wednesday, 21 June, Mr Sowatey said although confiscating properties of drug traffickers was a good attempt to discourage others, it was not the best form of deterrent.
In his view, the best form of deterrence, which according to him “has been proven by evidence through research globally, is the certainty of being caught and the swiftness of the punishment”.
“These two permutations deter people more. For example, when you are a drug baron and you are involved in any criminality and you are sure that you will be caught, that is a major deterrence. When you are sure, you are certain you cannot bribe your way through, you are sure you cannot use your social network to exonerate yourself before you are prosecuted. You are sure that you will be caught and convicted swiftly, those are the two things that help people to fight crime,” he added.
Meanwhile, Michael Addo, Deputy Executive Director of NACOB, while donating Ms Ametefe’s assets to charity, said: “We are making this presentation, telling the whole world that if you involve yourself in drugs and you are arrested, you will not live to enjoy the proceeds of the crime that you committed. We will have to seize them, we have been seizing houses, we have been seizing vehicles…”
Source:Ghana/AccraFM.com
