Youth crime : Why did it get so bad / How do we tackle it

Good day lovely hivers, I hope you all are doing well. This is my first post in this Community and I am really excited to be here. I will be sharing my opinion on one of the theme of the featured post. I hope you find it interesting.

Although issues of crime have been prevailent right from time immemorial,
everyone would agree that very recently( in the last two decades precisely), there has been a surge in the rate of criminal activities.
It has aroused great concern as it has been noticed that 90% of the crimes in recent times have been found to be committed by youngsters.
Like we all know, the future and strength of every nation or society is in the youth and failure to address this issue would result to total chaos and failure of the society.

A local Nigerian adage says thus " there is no smoke without fire", which means things do not just happen, there is always a cause and a reason for every happening.
For the issue of crime amongst youths, here are some reasons why I think it's on the increase.

FAILURE OF THE GOVERNMENT/LEADERS

In recent times, A lot of government have failed her people. The leaders have become selfish and and have abandoned the people they were elected to lead. They divert funds meant for development of the people and make policies to favour themselves.
They fail to provide basic amenities, create jobs or provide the necessary infrastructure and the enabling environment that would foster growth and development of the youths and the society at large.
Because of the hardship in the society, many youths have taken to crime, some do this to survive, to atleast cater for themselves and their families.

ILLITERACY/IGNORANCE

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In my country Nigeria, there are over 10 million children out of school, with so many children out of school, one would expect the illiteracy level in the near future to be high. These children would eventually turn out to be illiterate youths and being very much unenlightened and frustrated, they become a nuisance to the society. They become very gullible and are easily deceived and recruited by by terrorist groups to cause mayhem in the society

FAILURE OF THE FAMILY

The family like we all know is the smallest unit of the society. Everyone comes from a family. The first form of education and training starts from the family.
These days crimes amongst the youths have been on the increase because the family institution have failed.
A lot of parents and families have failed to train their teenagers very well, they've become careless and have failed to instill morals in them but allow them to act like the way they wish. These ones grow without proper guidance and later take to crime in their youth.

WRONG IDEOLOGY, LACK OF NORMS AND MORAL DECADENCE OF THE SOCIETY.

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Our current society is another reason why
crime is increasing amongst youths.
The society these days despise young and struggling youths doing legal and legitimate jobs, they instead celebrate rich criminals. Fraud have now almost been normalized. The society now respect and honour rich criminals not minding the source of their wealth. The society has lost its norms and values and this has greatly affected the youths. Such faulty ideology and orientation have pushed the youths into crime and vices.

CORRUPTION AND INEFFECTIVENESS OF THE POLICE AND LAW ENFORCERS

Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko from Pexels

Recently this has become another serious issue. The police and all saddled with the responsibility of arresting and persecuting criminals have become corrupt and ineffective. They are not proactive and are always outsmarted by these young criminals. Some others take bribe and even work with the criminals. These misdemeanors have fostered youth crimes as youths are no longer scared of the wrath of the law giving that they have their ways to maneuver the punishments of the law

PEER PRESSURE :

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This is another cause of the increasing crime rate amongst youth. Although it's not a fundamental cause but it also plays a big role in the rising crime rate.
A lot of youths lack strong willpower and are easily deceived and swayed by their peers. This is prevalent amongst youths in colleges and universities. Most of these youths go to colleges as good and upright individuals only to be swayed and pressured into crime by their peers.

HOW TO TACKLE INCREASING CRIME RATE AMONGST YOUTHS

The above mentioned are just few of the reasons why crimes amongst youths have been on the increase.
To tackle this issue, each of these fronts should be tackled

• On the issue of lack of infrastructure and enabling environment due to bad governance and leadership ; The masses
  should vote competent, tested and trusted men into leadership positions. Leaders should not be elected based on tribal or religious sentiments. They should be held accountable whenever they leave office.

• On the aspect of illiteracy ; Basic education should be made free for every young child. The government should pass a law compelling every parents/guardian to send every child in their custody to school.

• Concerning the family ,parents should raise their children properly, instilling the right virtues and values in them.
  Every couple about getting married should be made aware of the importance of raising their children to be good citizens and the devastating effects of negligence and failure to do so.

• Religious institutions should teach and preach messages pertaining to obedience, patience, honesty and loyalty. They should treat and respect every follower/member equally because everyone is equal in the sight of God.

• The society needs to be reoriented. Government , educational and religious institutions should emphasize and reorient the members of their society using every media and platform within their disposal.
  They should condemn crime and criminals. They should enlighten people about the disastrous effects of crime and criminals on the society. They should stir up hate and despise for crime amongst members of the society.

• The police should be trained to be effective and efficient in carrying out their duties, corrupt police officers should be flushed out of the system.

• Young Youths should be warned against and prepared before hand to withstand peer pressure. They should be trained to have self-control and contentment.

Thanks for reading my post, I hope you found it interesting, Let's all work together to stop crime and save the world.
If you know other reasons why youth crime is one the increase, please do well to say it and I would love to see your suggestions as to how this can be stopped.
If you see something !! Say something !!.Report to the police and law enforcers!!.