Motives of crimes often committed in Azerbaijan have been recently changed. At least 5-6 crimes reported in the press are connected with damage to health and domestic violence. They are committed with special cruelty. Today murder committed between brothers, a mother and a child, a wife and a husband, a father-in-law and a daughter-in-law, rapes and other crimes are not uncommon. These crimes are committed often within the last years, experts said. Some of them said that these facts were simply withheld and not reported in the press. Now they are public property.

About 6,667 people were condemned for various crimes for six months in Azerbaijan, judge of the Supreme Court Muzaffar Aghazadeh told Trend News on October 6. About 1,407 people have committed crimes harming life and health (this figure hit 1,357 people for six months of 2008). The number of people convicted for premeditated murder has increased by 8 (110 people) for six months of 2009. The number of people convicted for crimes harming sexual freedom and integrity increased 25 (87) people.

Aghazadeh said that the number of grave crimes committed per capita is lower in Azerbaijan, and the percentage of their detection is higher compared to other CIS countries. Judge connects it with national characteristics: respect for cognate ties, devotion to family. Aghazadeh connects increase of crimes committed on the basis of family relations with social problems – unemployment, poverty. It is impossible to talk about dynamic growth of these crimes without statistics, Azerbaijani head psychiatrist Geray Geraybeyli told Trend News. He said that aggressiveness in society holds the first place among the causes of these crimes.

“I heard a conversation of three teenagers a few days ago. One of them told about fights without rules that he watched on TV. If someone who had not heard their talk by watching them, one would have thought that they were talking about something pleasant. But a teenager spoke about one fighter who beat his opponent during a battle, as he smashed his head off, and that everything was in blood. Other teenagers looked like they regretted that have not seen this fight. Aggressiveness of teenagers is so high that they calmly say that someone was beaten or crippled,” Geraybeyli said.

The head psychiatrist told about results of research he conducted among children going in for sports. Most of them preferred martial art, Geraybeyli said. He said that it is connected with the tendency of people to aggressiveness. Movies broadcasted on TV develop this quality in people, chief psychiatrist said.

“Eight of ten films broadcasted on TV channels demonstrate scenes of fighting, violence, torture, victory of a strong man over a weak one. It inspires aggressiveness of people. Heroes killing people, sheding blood and having physical strength are represented positively in these films. People inferior in character also strive for own realization to experience these feelings.”

Geraybeyli said that if level of aggressiveness among teenagers and young people increases, aggression of people disposed to criminal actions is expressed in a more acute form. Crimes committed by them become more violent. “Unfortunately, such human qualities as good attitude to people, care, sympathy are in the second plan,” head psychiatrist said.

He said that it does not worth connecting growth of aggressiveness with social problems. “The problem must be solved via other actions. I think the reason is lack of care and attention towards teenagers. A factor of power is brought in a fashion in the society. Everyone wants to solve their problems by force,” head psychiatrist said.

Geraybeyli does not agree with the opinion concerning increasing number of inter-family conflicts. He said that it is impossible to conduct statistics of crimes committed on the basis of family relations. He said that this problem became urgent because inter-family relations were discussed. The problem began to aggravate. We think that the number of these crimes increases. Doctor regrets that there is common opinion that domestic violence is a norm.

“Many people think that a husband can beat his wife, a woman should be beaten, etc. The way to solve these problems is in legal enlightenment. Everyone must know his/her rights and responsibilities in a family. Women are not obliged to endure torture and violence against them. They must apply for law enforcement agencies. Otherwise, these facts can lead to a crime and a tragedy in these families,” Geraybeyli said.

Lawyer, expert Khanlar Alekperov said that the number of domestic violence, crimes committed with special cruelty increases. He added that if other crimes can be prevented, it is impossible to do the same towards domestic violence. It is impossible to control it.

Alekperov said that problems existing in society, arbitrariness impact on the nervous system of people.
“Traffic jams and signals on the roads, noise, etc. impact on our nervous system. All these cases are accumulated throughout a day and explode under some pretext leading to a crime,” expert said.

He said that major cause of crimes committed on the basis of inter-family relations is connected with prostitution and jealousy. Facts of prostitution increased for the last 20 years. Certainly, it affected families.