I

t is an undeniable fact that the streets are unsafe.

According to World Health Organization (WHO) data, traffic accidents have in the past few years become the third biggest killer in Indonesia after heart attacks and tuberculosis. National Police data in 2012 showed a considerably high rate of traffic accidents, with 109,038 cases and 27,441 fatalities, although the figure was slightly lower than the previous year of 109,776 cases and 31,185 fatalities.

However, traffic accidents are apparently not the sole determinant of our unsafe streets. There has been an upward trend lately of '€œstreet violence'€ by members of so-called '€œmotorcycle gangs'€ in a number of provinces.

The latest case in point was the attack on Harko Sutiono, a Kompas TV contributor, who suffered bruises to his body after he was beaten up by a number of motorcyclists who were riding in a group on Jl. RE Martadinata in Pademangan, North Jakarta, early on Sunday morning. They were mad at him after he, also on a motorcycle, had overtaken them on Jl. Sunter Permai Raya.

Earlier this month, members of XTC, a feared motorcycle gang in Pekanbaru, were involved in a number of robberies at Internet cafes in the Riau provincial capital. The gang leader, Mardijo, and a number of gang members, recently gang-raped a teenage girl in the compound of the city'€™s sports stadium.

In Makassar, motorcycle gang members attacked a Trans TV journalist last Thursday. They had previously attacked a Fajar TV journalist last month. Both journalists had been reporting on gang fights in the South Sulawesi capital.

The police had arrested Mardijo and a number of his gang members, as well as a teenage motorcycle gang leader in Makassar, Ari Katombo, who was allegedly behind the attack on a church in Makassar in February using Molotov cocktails. But arresting gang leaders and members will not help much in reducing, if not bringing to an end, the violent acts of motorcycle gangs.

Such gangs are nothing new in this country. A few years ago, they made headlines in the national media for similar types of crimes '€” attacking other motorcyclists and anyone who they saw as being against them. At the time, the media specifically highlighted the brutal recruitment process followed by motorcycle gang members, uploading video footage of the process sent by individuals via their cell phones. A number of individuals, such as prospective candidate members, were subjected to torture as part of their recruitment.

Now, after a lapse of several years, the motorcycle gangs have made headlines again through their violent acts. Only this time, the police and other related institutions need to think beyond the conventional approach of just arresting those involved in violence. It is time that they, including the general public, identify the root causes and find the solution.

As widely reported, members of these gangs are mostly teenagers and high school students, energetic, emotionally unstable and having a strong solidarity with their peers. Arresting and imprisoning them will not be effective in preventing them from committing the same acts again. Worse, spending time behind bars, even if only for a short period, will give them more '€œinsights'€ into crime in a broader sense as they are directly exposed to criminals inside prison.

Preventive measures and care for these individuals is perhaps a more intangible approach that will take a long time to bear fruit, but this approach is the key to a proper and long-term solution to the matter.