Juvenile crime is big news! In recent times, our local media has been saturated by accounts of youthful wrongdoings, with acts committed in Portsmouth or by residents of Portsmouth being at the forefront. The trend has escalated from armed robbery to murder, with illicit sexual acts and pornography being blatantly highlighted.
Indeed, it is the general consensus that crimes committed by the youth are on the rise. Ironically, however, it is also the consensus that these youth have a major role to play in the prevention of crime. The purpose of this piece is to examine strategies youth can employ to prevent criminal acts.
Youth should be involved in carrying out strategies to prevent violence in their communities. By having an active voice in discussing, planning and organizing events geared at curbing crime, targeted youth will build the skills that will help them make positive contributions to their neighborhood. One may be surprised as to the valuable perspectives on youth crime by the very same perpetrators of these acts.
For some time, there seemed to be a “hush” over the town of Portsmouth as we all took a back seat and let crime and criminals have free reign over our community. It seemed that we had lost sight of the fact that it is our civic responsibility to be our brother’s keeper. Reporting crime, or becoming part of a neighborhood watch is a simple, yet effective way youth can assist law enforcement in crime prevention. It is high time we stop harboring those amongst us who commit crimes in our community. If you see it, say it.
Recent statistics show that the number of young males between the ages of 13 to 17 who have dropped out of high school over the last 5 years have been on the increase steadily.
When compared to acts of violent crimes committed over that same period, an increase has also been recorded. This can be interpreted to mean that a lack of a sound education and life skills by individuals from low socio economic backgrounds are more prone to commit violent acts. When youth with untapped potential drop out of school citing reason such as boredom, lack of interest or financial constraints, it widens the pool of unskilled, uneducated persons who become largely dependent on a life of crime, or as a benefactor of criminal acts.
Remaining in school ensures youth obtain the education, skills, principles and morals one needs to propel themselves to higher heights and break the cycle of dependency. In that same vein, our education system needs to reintroduce skills training at all levels of education to cater for the holistic development of youth for as well all know, everyone may not be academically inclined.
We live in an age of materialism and vanity. While there is nothing wrong in wanting the finer things in life, the underlying problem remains in how they are acquired. Acts of violence and crime will never be justifiable. Youth, please take note.
Antonia Pierre is the Public Relations Coordinator of the National Youth Council of Dominica.
Antonio, you made some good points.But one thing is obvious, and should be addresses is you failed to make adults take the lead in preserving and ensuring that structures that make a civil society. Adults make children. These children grow up to become citizens of the state hence, adults must lead in preventing crime. They lead, and our youths will follow. Certainly, youths are responsible for many anti-social behaviors in our society but to leave out adults is like treating cance with a bandage. Government also must have the most important role here. Programs must be set aside to divert youths from criminal behavior. If there are no jobs creation, what you have is a population of idle youths. Satan does find mischeif for idle hands to do. We all will like our youths to take charge of their future but we need responsible adults to gear these youths for a better future. Afterall, adults have the experience, and hopefully the best knowledge of what is good for our young citizens. Like adults, youths are aiming for the best things in life. We may call it vanity, but it is what it is. Our youths are smart enough to know that life has it ups and down, and easy come, easy go. If adults want their children to be successfull, to be grear leaders, then adults must set examples.
One of the things young people can do to reduce youth crime is developing cooperatives. In every village a group of young people could come together to develop small businesses. What about a community garden where they could volunteer and grow food that later could be sold at a lower price to members of the cooperative, or could even be taken to a village market?
What about sewing? Crafts? A food business? Furniture making? With funding from the small business association, youth could become gainfully employed.
In addition to developing businesses, youth could also take the lead on village improvement – planting trees and flowers, cleaning up abandoned lots, cleaning rivers and beaches, filling up pot holes. One does not need to rely on government to keep the surroundings clean. Young people need to be engaged in meaningful activities. Until such time that these activities yield a financial return,they would serve as a means of skill development. In addition, youth would be taking a leadership role in creating stronger communities.
Maybe the National Youth Council could take the lead on helping establish such youth cooperatives.
great piece my Tones! I’m so proud of u! and ur words ring true!
Antonia, good piece. You are on point.. I concur!
Some of the crimes could be prevented because the bail is so low they are back on the streets like no big deal. Deny them bail till the case is call this would be a example to others this might scared them of committing crimes.
OR
it could see them mingling with more hardcore criminals at Stockfarm.