Tune to your local television channel, your local radio station, or browse your local news sources, and you will quickly conclude with me that, while crime is the order of the day, youth crime is a problem of our century and our generation.
Are we cursed? Where did we go wrong? What is happening? Well-meaning people are really concerned, while the bad actors go ahead and perpetrate the inhuman act of crime without remorse. The most troubling part of this is that youths these days are incorrigible, all attempts to bring them to order have failed, and inversely, look more like attempts to send them more into the wide.
While I am no minister of bad news, it is definitely impossible to talk about youth crimes these days without citing examples/instances of these. Lately, even with all attempts to escape the news, I am still confronted with the news of daily prevalence of youth crimes on the media, even on levels not at all imagined. Here are some of them:
Cybercrime: Mind you, this is a very broad level of crime today, covering a wide range of vices carried out by youths of this day. It includes internet-related thefts through phishing attacks, hacking, stealing of personal information, 419 (fraud), and even the infamous Yahoo+ common in Nigeria - involving some form of rituals to enhance cybercrime success.
Drug trafficking: I was watching a National Geographic documentary yesterday on the success of Fentanyl in destroying thousands of lives daily in the streets of America, and at the forefront of this, were young boys and girls. In Nigeria, drugs such as Crystal methamphetamine (commonly referred to as ICE) is common among youths today, they trade and use these drugs which motivate them to become more truant and nuisance.
Sexual-related crime: It was to my surprise to find how lucrative bestiality and related industries are. Young people again travel to have sex with animals for a huge sum of money. Young men are not exempted, there is an uprise of BROSTITUTES around us today, homosexuals; and recently, I came to discover that people are involved in high levels of sexting, all for money.
Power-craving crimes: It is easy to conclude that most crimes among young people are linked to money, but not all. Another important precursor to crime is power cravings and the spirit of independence. Youths today do not want to be under anyone's control, so they take control and independence in the most irrational way possible, the consequence of which is the high crime rate. Youths are now joining cult groups, purchasing firearms, and even enrolling with terrorists, just to be feared and respected by their peers.
We can go on and on, it is an endless list of crimes associated with youths. But, why youths?
Why Crime among Youth Prevails
The issue of crime prevalence among youths is more than just social, it is even physiological. What do I mean? Let's explore some common factors bringing youths to the forefront of crime scenes:
Youths are Young: When I mention physiologic, this is what I was referring to. First of all, the brain of most average youths between 13 to 24 is more wired toward adventure than reality and reason, making them vulnerable to crime. On average, the thrill of crime is appealing to most youths, it just comes with this psychological approval that most youths desire. At the end of the day, it is easier to convince a young person into taking part in a crime than it is to convince a more experienced and older person. But physiology is only a little part of the story.
Society is Pushing Youths: The society is not helping youths in this regard. The changes our societies have observed over time, from being a humane environment to nurturing good and desirable behaviour among youth to being an environment driven by the quest for money and wealth, the place of hard work has been relegated to the background. With hard work becoming old school, people have coined a new term, smart work, and look into these so-called smart works that are being done, more than half of it is some form of crime or social vices.
Human Rights is a Lie: The basic idea of human rights is plausible and is fundamental to human existence. In fact, human rights are natural principles that should guide everyone in every society. However, the implementation of human rights is where we have failed. I visited a prison recently, and you need to see the prisoners, they are more good-looking than we the visitors, and even better off than the officers taking care of them. Prison is now being coined a correction centre with no room for punishment and even hard labour as we knew.
Is this the world we want? While there is no guarantee that corporal punishment will cause a change, a prison should not be a conducive place like home, with only restrictions to freedom. Thanks to the wise ones in America spearheading these changes, I even come to learn that no one must be sentenced to death again, is either life in prison, or serve a specific term.
At the end of the day, prison terms are seen as nothing, and people do not pay enough price commensurate to the crime they commit, making crime a bit more appealing for youths. My point is this, we should not in the guise of human rights make crime more appealing for youths; there should be a healthy balance.
When a crime is committed, the victim has their rights as a human infringed on; should we go ahead and try to protect the rights of the perpetrator, especially when there is direct and unmistakable evidence of a grave wrong?Parents, Elders, and Religion has Failed: For most persons, their family is their motivation (directly and indirectly) to go into crime. Young people are being pushed to attain heights that their parents and older ones in the family have not been able to attain, most time for monetary gains. Most organized religions now are strongholds for showcasing wealth and properties, the more young people are exposed to this, the more they desire them, and try to get them.
Peer pressure & Impatience: Our friends make us and break us, and as social beings, it is impossible to avoid making friends. These people we call friends and those we hang around with exerting an unreal level of influence on us without our knowledge, shaping our thoughts and actions. Most young persons are drawn to crime because of their associates.
More important however is the fact that most young people are impatient. Look at highly successful people today, there are very few young people among them. The fact is, if you manage to find a young person who is legitimately wealthy, he/she is an exception, you are not doing anything wrong that you have not turned out like them, but you just have not been provided with the right opportunities, and connections and these make a lot of difference. Aside from these key exceptions, the most wealthy people we know today are advanced in age, why? They used their youth to work for what they enjoyed at this old age. But young people today want to jump the whole process. They want to get rich quick, and if you are not like them, they will reassure you that you will die trying.
What can be done?
At this point of human history and existence, we are clueless with respect to what should be done to fight crime. Other activities are actively trying to gain our attention that crime has been given less attention. I strongly believe that if nothing is done, the situation will deteriorate the more and at some point, it could be very difficult for the average man to sleep at night.
I hereby recommend the following:
Need assessment: The needs of young people should be critically assessed to be able to provide a workable solution that meets youth at their point of needs. The need assessment needs to start from the family level, with parents building strong friendship with their young ones, and trying to nip the potential of a child being in the front of a crime scene in its bud. The next level of need assessment is community/societal level, in which public administrators should try to assess the needs of youths in a bid to prevent crime among youths.
Stricter punishment for offenders: Offenders should not be exonerated from crime; if all evidence points to a person being guilty of crime, he/she should face the full wrath of the law.
Engage youths productively: It is commonly said that the idle man is the devil's workshop. Youths that are productively engaged are less likely to be involved in crime. If youths have more things to do, they will definitely become too busy to have time for crime.
Youths Need to be Reasonably Independent: It is high time youths started being able to decide on the path they want to choose in life. Youths need to be more intelligent, and more decisive, they need to learn and they need to act.
Final Words
There is a lot going in terms of youth crime. There are numerous causes and factors associated with crime among youths in the world today. The hard fact is that, the hands of everyone - families, governments, etc. are tied. There is very little that can be done. Because, the main cause of crime, terrorism, violence and the numerous evil vices in the world today, is a force beyond our understanding, and it exceeds human resolution. We can only try!