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The Influence Of Poverty On Crime
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CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Owerri
District has a population of over 240,000 people, 60% of this population
live below the poverty line of less than 1 US dollar per day leading to
poor standards of living. There is massive population explosion and
pressure on the meagre resources like land, water, health, education,
infrastructure, agriculture and some micro-finance enterprises in the
region.
Due to the vicious cycle of poverty, there is gross violation
of human rights as per the Geneva Convention that every person has the
right to life, liberty and security. Other fundamental human rights
violated in Owerri District included article 2 where men and women are
to be treated equally which is not the case, instead they are
subordinates and not allowed in decision making especially on assets.
The area has been a high population growth of youths (70%) who have
neither trained, completed school or dropped out of school due to
unemployment have resulted to violent crimes in the area such as murder,
assault, rape, prostitution, theft, burglary, armed gangsters,
banditry, trade in illicit rugs like bhang, changaa (local beer).
Article 5 of the Declaration of Human Rights the states that no one
shall be subjected to torture cruel inhumane or degrading treatment or
punishment, economic or political liberty. The rights of the inhabitants
of Owerri have been highly contested leading them to fall into traps of
violent crimes in the region..
Poverty as a social phenomenon has
affected the entire population in the region, poverty and inequality
often results due to social instability, diseases, environmental
degradation, struggle for natural resources and constraints on the basic
needs in the society. In 1992 it was estimated that 42% of the
approximately 525 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa lived below the
poverty line of US $ 370 per capita and the number was expected to
increase by 50% in the year 2000. It is noted that women, children, old
age, disabled and the orphans are the most affected with poverty. The
unstable micro-economic environment, poor development policies which
yield to low economic growth not consistent with economic growth, poor
infrastructure, dependency ratio in the area is also high. There is need
for proper planning, decision making and economic empowerment of Owerri
people to alleviate poverty in the region. The District budget
allocation should be allocated, reviewed and strategic plans made to
oversee the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) Local Government
Transfer Fund (LATF), Women Development Fund, and Youths Fund to help
improve the income of the people for better standards of living. “People
must not be allowed to be come so poor that they offend or are hurtful
to the society. It is so much that misery and plight of the poor but the
discomfort and the costs of the community which is crucial to the view
of the poverty. Poverty due to low income creates problems for those who
are not poorâ€. (Martya 1981)[1]
Crime as an act of sufficient
challenges to the people of Owerri District has created fear for
development and investment in the area which has no industry and
processing services to bring income and employment to the area. Most of
the businesses in the major towns are grocery, and casual labour
especially in
Luanda, Esibuye, Kilingili, Khumusalaba, Mwichio. Most
of the occupation of Owerri is subsistence farming on small holdings
mainly done by women to subsidize the family income. There are many
crimes counted in the area such as juvenile delinquency as crimes
counted be of children less than 18 years who make gangsters/ banditry,
rape and murder people in the villages I.e. the Town Down gangsters of
Luanda Town, the 42 brothers, and Musumbiji and others. Acts of crime,
gambling, prostitution, vagrancy, homosexual are notorious to control in
the District and thus referred to as victimless crimes. White collar
crimes are committed by respectable persons through corruption. The
purpose of this study is to investigate and establish the relationship
between poverty and crime in Owerri District and recommend ways on
reduction of crime.
The purpose the study was to establish the
relationship between poverty and crime and make recommendations of
helping the Abanyole people of Owerri and the government to alleviate
poverty and crime in the area of study. The research is to generate ways
of solving poverty through proper planning on investments,
implementation of government projects solve unemployment, land tenure
problems and enact a good policy legal framework to curb crime in the
area.
Information from this study will be used by Governmental
Departments i.e. Constituency Development Fund (CDF), Youth Fund,
District Budgetary allocations, Education Offices, Provincial
Administration and Non-Governmental Organizations to make right
decisions to empower the economic status of the area to alleviate
poverty and violent crimes as well as gross violation of human rights.
The Ministry of Planning and National Development, Ministry of finance,
The Office of the President and Provincial Administration to promote
food security, health and sanitation services, investment and cur b
violent crimes in the region. The study will be useful in investigating
and establishing factors leading to poverty and how to curb them through
the recommendations of the study in accordance to Malthusian’s
population Theory on Fundamental Human rights and conflicting theory on
crime issues. The findings of this study will enable to put down factors
leading to poverty and come up with strategic plans to help reduce it
engage the entire population towards positive economic development of
the area.
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Poverty has a great
influence on the crime rate in Owerri district of western Nigeria.
Poverty can be in state of absolute where there is lack of the basic
resources needed to maintain minimum of the physical health, normally
calculated in calories, while relative poverty has quantitative
dimensions which refer to general standard f living in different
societies due to cultural sensitivity and variations between and within
societies over time. Poverty is due to massive inequality due to poor
allocation of investment, education, planning and policy implementation,
inadequate health facilities, human rights violations such as economic
empowerment, right for protection, security, children’s rights, and
right to life.
Owerri area with a population of over 240,000 suffers
from poverty and crime due to underdevelopment and expansive population
which constraints the meagre available natural resources. There are no
investments in the area apart from some small micro-finance investment
Nigeria Women Finance Trust (KWFT) which are created to help women start
small business holds. The Constituency Development Fund (CDF) is also
geared towards enhancing small microfinance projects in education,
infrastructure, youths, markets, farming in the area to alleviate
poverty. There are conflicts over the scarce resources like land
ownership, safe drinking water, streams, food, education, health which
results into conflicts and criminal activities and offences due to
poverty. Crime and violent conflicts is growing due to disparities in
wealth, increasing unemployment among the youths, population press he on
land and resources leading to environmental degradation which provokes
social discontent, polarization leading to social strife in the region.
According to vigorous approach theory societal conditions of deep spread
and deep poverty is essentially deprivation suffered by a large segment
of some important essentials for sustenance such as sufficient income
to provide housing, clothing, food and education, health facilities
adequate opportunities for production employment which leads to societal
stress. Stress leads to increasing the anger and frustration of the
poor suffering who are then exploited by violence promoting war bent
demagoguery. Indeed scarcities of the basic needs amongst the population
causes social segmentation, group formation and strengthen groups
identity which creates violent collective action which takes forms from
rime war, terrorism, riots, civil insurgencies, political repressions to
its ultimate forms.
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ABSRACT - [ Total Page(s): 1 ]The purpose of the study was to establish the significant relationship between poverty and crime in Owerri district of Western Province of Nigeria. The objective of the study was to investigate the influence of poverty on crime amongst the residents of Owerri District in Western Province. The research design for the study was survey research design in which 5 point likert scale questionnaire on poverty and crime was used study to collect data from the respondents. The sample for the study consis ... Continue reading---
