| Summary: | Finds fragile states lack the capacity to effectively prevent crime, enforce laws, or peacefully resolve disputes across the whole of their territories. State institutions--particularly police and courts--may be difficult for communities to access due to their minimal presence or weak capabilities, due to unfamiliar or poorly understood legal codes and procedures (possibly complicated by linguistic or cultural differences), or due to ethnic, religious, or gender bias. State criminal justice institutions frequently become a primary instrument for the government and elites to maintain power and control through the perpetration of injustice, as has happened in Afghanistan, Haiti, Papua New Guinea, Zimbabwe, and Myanmar. Politicization of the police, judiciary, and correctional facilities has led to arbitrariness, discrimination, and corruption. Interventions to strengthen performance of local law enforcement and justice institutions should include mediation and conflict resolution as well as property and family dispute resolution. To counter organized and cross-border crime and violence, multisectoral interventions with longer-time commitments are required addressing at-risk youth and promoting local accountability.
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