Goals and Objectives

The Development objective of the Institute is to promote harmonious socioeconomic development in the countries of the region through the incorporation, in national planning, of suitable policies and program for crime prevention and criminal justice as a means of reducing the potentially negative side-effects of dysfunctional growth and attendant change, and their human and material costs.

The Institute endeavors to:

Promote collaborative activities and joint action on priority problems bearing on crime prevention and control in the development context; upgrade personnel and standards of performance in criminal justice, as well as impart new skills; provide an empirical basis for decision-making through policy-oriented research; encourage the pooling and exchange of expertise, experience and information; assist in the promotion of indigenous approaches and innovative solutions, drawing on African traditions and orientations, as well as on new developments in the field; direct assistance to Governments at their request; and promote the regional integration of efforts against trans-border and trans-national criminality whose methods and scope pose a particular threat to development and social stability.

The operational objectives include:

i. Assisting in the formulation of policies and program for the prevention and control of crime and the correction of offenders in the context of national developmental planning in the countries of the region;

ii. Upgrading of personnel and standards of performance in policy making, law-enforcement, justice administration, and offender-correction through special interdisciplinary training activities and; impairment of new knowledge and skills;

iii. Provision of an empirical basis for sound decision-making in law- enforcement, administration of criminal justice, and offender correction through policy-oriented research, systematic data collection and the establishment of a crime data bank;

iv. Initiation and promotion of indigenous and innovative approaches, drawing on African traditions as well as new developments in the field of crime prevention and control;

iv. Provision of direct advisory and/or assistance to Governments of African States, upon their own request;

v. Promotion of cooperative activities and joint action on priority needs and problems of crime prevention and control;

vi. Promotion of regional and sub-regional integration of efforts against transnational criminality.