Assessing factors that contribute to urban crime among youths in Uganda: case study Wakiso municipality, Wakiso district

Abstract

The study sought to assess factors that contribute to urban crime among youth in Uganda: A case of Wakiso municipality, Wakiso district of Uganda. Accordingly a number of objectives were examined, that is, to evaluate the main factor responsible for urban crime among the youths in Wakiso municipality, to examine the empirical relationship between poverty and urban crime among the youths in Wakiso Municipality ,to establish the relationship between unemployment and urban crime among the youths in Wakiso Municipality , to identify the relationship between education levels and urban crime among the youths in Wakiso Municipality, to assess the strategies and policy interventions that have been put in place to reduce urban crime among the youths in Wakiso Municipality A review of related literature was also considered where the researcher consulted journals, books and other publications from various scholars on the subject of juvenile crime and how it relates with the other independent variables (poverty, unemployment and education). Across sectional descriptive research design was adopted using a sample of 70 respondents from the study population of 85 respondents. The sample size was determined through simple sampling technique. Data was then collected using the questionnaire tool and later analyzed using spss version 24. Key findings of the study revealed that crime offers a way in which impoverished youths can obtain goods and services that they cannot get to or achieve through legitimate means, the findings further revealed that Criminal activities vary and even crime rates take different jurisdictions, with accompanying differences in the rates of enforcement. In conclusion poverty is considered to be the root cause of criminal activities among the youths of Wakiso municipality since most youths in the area are poor with low financial standing. The study therefore recommended that funding youth investment projects and improve on wages of casual workers like watchmen, housekeepers, shamba boys and other low class jobs so as to avert the escalating criminal tendencies among the youths of Wakiso municipality population