Conclusions
p. 64-66
Texte intégral
1From the foregoing, it can be perceived that delinquency is a function of several factors. These factors are summarized below:
- Juvenile delinquency and juvenile violence arise from peer group influences. Many instances of delinquent behaviour evolve from the contacts made between slightly deviant or non-deviant populations and those already established in deviant patterns. The existence of gangs in schools, work places and neighbourhoods facilitates the admission and socialization of new members into the norms and values already in existence. This process of socialization and internalization of subcultural values, ethics and norms continues as long as allegiance of members to the group is secured, maintained and sustained.
- Juvenile delinquency also thrives due to the breakdown of moral values in the dominant culture. The disorientation of the main cultural role/expectations in achieving positive moral, mental and physical development of youths tends to confuse children about what is right or wrong in given specific conditions and situations. Where emphasis, for example, is placed on attaining success without a corresponding emphasis on just and socially acceptable means of attaining it, young members of the society will grow up doing what they presume to be right.
- Like peer group pressure, role-images portrayed in the mass media have an impressive effect on character moulding and decision making. As long as the media is not a vehicle for the positive inculcation of acceptable social values, unacceptable values, when allowed on the air-waves, will accomplish negative results in the youths of the society. Uncontrolled use of the media, especially the television, to advertise goods which are sometimes dangerous to the health of users, exposes youths early in life to the unhealthy side effects of the items so advertised.
- Juvenile delinquency is also seen to emerge from poor housing and the lack of other social infrastructures. The provision of good housing/shelter for members of the society is one of the principal indicators of good living. Where houses are insufficient in number, slum housing will emerge on the verges of planned residential areas. Squatter or slum houses and overcrowded accommodation give rise to some forms of youth crimes and violence. In such areas, drug abuse, drug trafficking and gang violence thrive.
- The rising trend of personal crimes perpetrated by young people in Jos is an attestation of the general growing levels of such crimes in the country. This conclusion applies to all forms of delinquency and crime as a function of the workings of the socio-political, economic and cultural orders of the Nigerian society. Social, legal economic and political imbalances, injustices, and inequalities in terms of access to the distribution of national or state resources, occasion the inaccessibility of good education, housing, medical care, and food. Although not every child who lacks these things will ultimately become deviant, the majority of youths who eventually become delinquent are in need of all these basic survival requirements.
- Juvenile delinquency and violence analyzed on gender lines only help to strengthen the internal consistencies and external validities of the conclusion that both females and males commit deviant acts. In modern Nigerian cities, more and more females are employed in industry and the civil service. A good number, too, are not sufficiently sustained by their male parents or guardians and have had to secure a means of livelihood (legitimate or illegitimate) for themselves. Child labour, whether of males or females, places children in positions where they are abused by adults. The absence of social security provisions by the state also aggravates poverty.
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