The issue of recruiting child soldiers for war is a rampant social crime in Africa that has seen thousands of children recruited and trained as soldiers to kill their fellow countrymen. This is the story of Domique Ongwen, a Uganda crime lord who was recently convicted by the ICC for various crimes against humanity in his home country Uganda. Ongwen was a victim of the system that trained him to be a killer as he was abducted when he was nine years old. The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), a rebel Christian group operating in Uganda, South Sudan and Central Africa, is credited for abducting numerous children in these regions and turning them into killing machines. Ongwen was a victim of the abductions by the LRA and later rose through the ranks to become one of the influential members in the movement. He found his place in the rebel group through abduction and advanced his influence to the level of world recognition and influence. To understand his engagement in the numerous crimes against humanity, it is crucial to analyze his life through various criminology theories which will help shed light on why he decided to take this path.
Ongwen is believed to have been abducted by the LRA in 1987 or 1988 on his way from school and his parents killed not more than a month after his abduction ( Pangalangan, 2017) . His woes begun at a time when Uganda was afflicted by the rebel group that took advantage of children, trained them and turned them into assets for war. After his abduction, Ongwen tried three times to escape from his captors but failed in all attempts ( Pangalangan, 2017) . His captors forced him to skin one of his companions on the escape alive to ensure that they taught him a lesson ( BBC News , 2021) . From then on, his place in the rebel group was cemented and through varied mentors from the LRA, Ongwen morphed into a feared leader and influencer in the LRA. His crimes were heinous to the extent of attracting the attention of the ICC and he was eventually convicted of crimes against humanity in 2021.
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To fully understand Ongwen’s engagement in criminal activities, Sutherland’s Differential Association theory and Agnew’s General Strain Theory are applied. In his Differential Association theory, Edwin Sutherland proposes that people will learn and adopt criminal behaviors through their interactions with others. His primary focus is on how the individual eventually becomes a criminal and puts little to no focus on why ( Siegel, 2019) . His main assumptions are that all criminal behavior are aspects of the individual that are learned. For Sutherland, criminal behavior can only be adopted if it is learned and this learning process occurs in the individual’s environment. He further proposes that the learning of crime is primarily through a process of communication during interactions that occur between the learner and those in their environment ( Siegel, 2019) . He further proposes the existence of relationships and to a great extent, intimacy in the groups where criminal behavior in learned ( Siegel, 2019) . For him, there needs to be a certain level of inter-connection in the group and among its members for criminal behavior to be learned.
Sutherland further proposes that the learning process will not only include general knowledge on the criminal activities but further involves necessary techniques and advancement of motives to rationalized the preferred crimes ( Siegel, 2019) . Through this, the individual will eventually justify why he or she chooses to be a criminal. Personal interpretations of engaging in the crime may be favorable or unfavorable at a personal level and the individual will engage in the crime if these interpretations seem favorable ( Siegel, 2019) . To a great extent, the decision to engage in criminal activities will be influenced by those who are already criminals and, in the individual’s immediate environment. Therefore, the individual will be mainly pushed to engage by those who are already in it. The person finds immense satisfaction or gratification from these crimes eventually and this further increases the desire to engage.
Agnew’s General Strain Theory on the other hand identifies varied strains that can lead an individual into engaging in criminal activity. Agnew recognizes that multiples influences of strain will come into play when deciding to engage in crime. He identifies these sources of strain as the failure to achieved goals that one believes will add positive value to their lives ( Siegel, 2019) . Another influence is when there exists a dysfunction between one’s expectations and achievements. This mainly occurs when one views his or her peers to be doing better than them in various aspects of life. Strain can also occur when positively valued stimuli is removed from the individual’s environment. This occurs when something negative happens in a usually positive environment that the individual is used to. Here the person is gradually pulled into criminal activity due to this immense change ( Siegel, 2019) . For instance, when a teenager experiences the divorce of their parents, it means that a positive stimulus, the presence of a happy family has been removed from their environment. He or she may resort to maladaptive behavior like substance use to deal with this change. Agnew further identifies that a person will decide to become a criminal if negative stimuli is introduced in their environment ( Siegel, 2019) . This can include negative aspects in the individual’s environment that he or she has to endure. In many instances, people who experience trauma during their childhood, such as sexual or physical abuse eventually turn to crime as a way of dealing with this abuse, especially when they grow up. Agnew agrees that when such negative stimuli including neglect are experienced by an individual, he or she eventually turns to crime.
Agnew further explains that the experience of these different types of strain increase the likelihood of one experiencing negative emotions ( Siegel, 2019) . It is highly likely for one to experience emotions such as anger, frustration, disappointment or stress when these strains are present in their environment. This eventually leads to the perception that one was wronged and the person sets themself on a quest for vengeance ( Siegel, 2019) . It is this desire for revenge that results in criminal activities in the person. Such individuals also demonstrate high chances of joining deviant groups which help them advance their revenge and criminal behavior.
Considering Ongwen’s case and the Differential Association theory, one identifies that the push to become a warlord and world criminal primarily originated from his place in the LRA. Sutherland’s theory demonstrates how Ongwen’s criminal activities were learned from his environment. From the beginning, Ongwen had not taken the resolution to engage in crime. He was an innocent child driven by social underpinnings and was living up to what was required of him by his society. Nonetheless, the abduction pushed him into an environment that was riddled by crime and criminal activities. It is through observing what other criminals were doing in his new environment and being taught by experience individuals that he eventually learned to a criminal. During his initial experiences as part of the LRA, Ongwen was not willing to be part of this criminal world which is why he attempted a number of times to escape ( Refugee Law Project , 2016) . Nonetheless, those in the rebel movement, who made up most of the interactions he was experiencing, somewhat forced him into becoming a criminal. He was made to experience the consequences of not adhering to what the group wanted and this pushed him into accepting their demands. Further, he continually learned criminal activities under the mentorship of different influential leaders in the LRA. It was highly likely that he would adopt their ways of life and decide to be an influential member of the rebel group. Therefore, when viewing Ongwen’s eventual criminal engagement through Sutherland’s eyes, one can clearly see how a significant amount of the criminal behavior that describes him was influenced by the interactions he experienced and how he eventually learned to be a warlord from his position in the LRA.
When viewing Ongwen’s criminal behavior from Agnew’s General Strain theory, one can identify that he was a victim of the removal of a positive stimulus from his environment and the addition of negative stimuli. The interaction of these strains resulted in him becoming a criminal. Before being abducted, Ongwen was affiliated with an environment that comprised of a family that cared for him. Seeing that he was abducted on his way from school, his parents wanted him to get an education, which was an indication of their care for him. This was a positive stimulus that he had experienced for the first few years of his life. Nonetheless, his abduction resulted in the introduction of a negative stimulus. The criminal environment that he was forced into was characterized by numerous hardships and various traumas including torture, killing or being killed ( Refugee Law Project , 2016) . It was an environment that a child of his age was not used to and this drastic change resulted in the development of varied negative emotions in him. He became angry and frustrated at his abductors and probably at society at large to the extent that he decided to act against those he blamed and those he was taught to view as the enemy. His interactions with the LRA ensured that he channeled his anger to specific individuals and communities who he grew to hate. Therefore, as he grew up as part of the LRA, his anger and frustration were fueled by the group and his leadership. This, combined with the somewhat favorable environment that was snatched from him when he was abducted pushed Ongwen into engaging in criminal activities. These strains that were introduced in his environment at given points of his life drove him to engaging in crime that he believed was his vengeance towards those who had wronged him. This viewpoint was also developed in him by the rebel group to ensure that he directed his vengeance to those who may not have deserved it. To a certain extent, one can conclude that Ongwen was brainwashed by the LRA.
The two theories explain Ongwen’s engagement in crime from varied viewpoints. Differential association theory demonstrates how one can learn criminal activities from their environment. Therefore, it demonstrates the influence of the environment on crime. It also shows how aspects of this environment can influence one’s decision to become a criminal. These aspects include gangs already identified for the crime. It identifies one’s decision to become a criminal through a cost benefit analysis and demonstrates that in all instances, the benefits would outweigh the costs. One weakness is that the theory does not identify internal motivations for one engaging in crime. At one point or the other, it is likely that one will be prompted by internal stimulus to engage in crime. A strength of the General Strain theory is that it identifies external influences that push one into becoming a criminal. It further connects these influences to one’s emotional well-being and therefore brings in a view of the internal influences of criminal behavior. Both theories demonstrate how crime can be influenced by external factors in one’s environment and these viewpoints well-explain why Ongwen eventually become a warlord. While Sutherland’s theory adopts a learning viewpoint to explain criminal behavior, Agnew uses environmental factors to demonstrate this connection. It is clear that they adopted different views when explaining the criminal behavior in Ongwen. One area that Agnew’s theory contrasts with Ongwen’s criminal behavior is the discussion of strains like one’s failure to achieve positive and valued goals and the dysfunction of one’s expectations and achievements. Both aspects, which seem to be critical in explaining criminal behavior for the author, cannot be connected to Ongwen’s experience since they greatly differ with what caused him to become a crime lord. Nonetheless, these frameworks help in the development of efficient explanations to Ongwen’s criminal behavior thereby expanding one’s understanding of his life and choices.
References
BBC News. (2021). Dominic Ongwen - from child abductee to LRA rebel commander . BBC News. Retrieved 27 March 2021, from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-30709581.
Pangalangan, R. L. A. (2017). Dominic Ongwen and the Rotten Social Background Defense: The Criminal Culpability of Child Soldiers Turned War Criminals. Am. U. Int'l L. Rev. , 33 , 605.
Refugee Law Project. (2016). Another Injustice - Victims' consultations on the ICC case against LRA's Dominic Ongwen . Youtube.com. Retrieved 27 March 2021, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3CthMxJ3jQ.
Siegel, L. (2019). Criminology: The Core (7th ed.). Cengage Learning, Inc.
