Three months ago, on this day, after awakening irreparable loss and grief occurred not only to the victims’ Avetisyans’ relatives, but to almost all Armenians. Everyone instead of saying good morning to each other spoke about the violence which had occurred.
We had referred from different aspects to some facts of the occurrence and some hypotheses about it before.
Today we try to sum up the aftereffects of the occurrence and consider what measures are available that may prevent similar violations.
No doubt, the incident left its trace not only in our memory, but in people’s minds, causing undermining the sense of safety. And it is more noticeable among the people who have children. Meanwhile, under the security, here it is observed both, the physical as well as mental security. A number of people say that after the incident they several times check whether they closed the doors and windows; others say that they began visiting children’s bedroom more frequently than before to check whether everything is normal or not. Of course we should not forget that the sense of fear is given to a person to defend himself, however it should be in its limits so that it does not jeopardize the mental security and cause a number of psychological problems, which may even become the reason for criminal behavior.
We think that is very important not only to apply efforts in the direction of detection the crime, but also apply equal and no less important measures to prevent repetition of the offense. Of course here the strict maintenance of the principle of inevitability of punishment is also of a great importance.
It is due to note that this is not easy to implement in terms of crime prevention, because very often the reason for such violent crimes are psychological occurrences, unconscious appearances, which sometimes are not only difficult to influence on, but also sometimes impossible. Although there are a number of measures to prevent such violent murders, which in some cases are able to neutralize the criminal prerequisites.
Here it is also a very important issue that the criminologists, in addition to the theoretical plane shall pass to a more practical level, for which we consider necessary, implementation and operation of the relevant specialized agencies by the state, which will conduct their activities in a more targeted manner, carrying out everyday work.
For the prevention of such crimes the establishment of the preliminary expertise institute of the materials broadcast by the media is very important, which works in the direction of detection and elimination of the elements carrying criminal elements.
In addition, appropriate films, advertisement and other materials, full of psychological manipulations of illegally diverting from the criminal path, which are prepared by the professionals, may be supportive. A number of other events may also be helpful, such as specifically activities aimed at reduction of unemployment, establishment of an extremely strict control regime referring the armament, etc.
In this regard, we also propose measures to ensure free psychological services available to the public at large. This will provide opportunity to many people to solve their problems without psychological socially dangerous acts.
Of course we do not deny the fact that this may not help many people to refrain from the criminal path, but if at least one person will be kept back from such criminal undertaking, and then we believe this will be a great achievement.
Of course it is possible that that person could have been the perpetrator of the brutal crime in Gyumri, and the greatest achievement in that case would have been the live presents of Avetisyans Family today.
Zaruhi Harutyunyan, Expert in Forensic Psychology, AYLA member.
