By Ben Okezie
Crime is intent majorly, nurtured in the heart of a child. Most times, it is influenced by what they see, hear and the type of friends or association they keep.
A child can come from a very religious family, go to school and begin to experience peer pressure. He makes friends with some of his classmates or schoolmates, who steal and tell lies.
He will then start following their footsteps by telling lies, and then graduate to stealing. How do they tell lies? They start by telling insignificant lies.
For instance, he takes something that belongs to someone else in the class and when asked, “Who took this thing?”
His friends will tell him to say he wasn’t the person. Sometimes, they might even threaten to beat him if he tells the truth. Many of them lie to avoid being bullied, beaten or ostracized from their friends. After a while, the frequency of lying increases.
In a nutshell, the young man begins to practice what he has been seeing his friends do. This includes emulating their bad behaviours.
Parents should monitor their children, especially to check what they bring from school to the house.
When children start telling lies, parents should immediately caution them. They should use the Bible or Quran to buttress their points. They can also use stories from the holy books to chastise the child.
Another factor that contributes to a young person taking to crime is the type of training he/she got at home.
Children should not be allowed to bring stuff, which does not belong to them, to their homes. Parents should be able to explain that taking stuff that doesn’t belong to them is actually stealing.
Parents should not be afraid of chastising their children, if they don’t, these kids may develop bad habits when they enter secondary schools or tertiary institutions.
When children get to secondary school, they see people bigger than them, who want to buy new phones and clothes. In secondary school, they see girls and boys dating. They see girls asking the boys for money.
The boyfriend wants to impress his girlfriend; he would want to do anything to please her. He begins to take notice of where his parents keep money.
He steals part of the money just to impress his girlfriend and meet her desires. The desire to do anything to impress his girlfriend is part of the reality of peer pressure. The girl is giving him serious pressure with her demand for money; money, which as at his age, he didn’t have.
At some certain point in his life, a child who is seriously under the influence of peer pressure, will start to congregate to steal. One person will distract, while others will steal the valuables and then they share it. Sometimes, it starts as a prank and develops into real stealing and then robbery, with some of them looking for weapons to make the job easier.
Some take to these crimes while in school and it naturally start affecting their performances in class. The life of crime is a distraction. They wouldn’t be able to focus on their studies. At this point, the boy’s grade will begin to drop.
A perceptive parent should be able to notice and do everything possible to find out what is going on with him/her.
But sadly, most parents are simply not perceptive or in tune with what are happening to their children. They are too caught up in their own world. This is bad. They are busy making money and leading their children to the whims and caprices of friends.
These distractions begin to affect them, to the extent some of them will drop out of school. Some even drop out because they discovered that their friends, who dropped out are faring well financially. They don’t even know the source of his money.
Another pressure is what most of them caused themselves. They see their mates, who had gone to university, graduated, got a job and start driving nice cars and living in a nice house. Those that dropped out in secondary school also want to acquire those material things at all costs.
To meet up, they take to little crimes like pickpocket and then they take to robberies. They form gangs. After robbing and making little money, they begin to yearn for a larger amount of money. And then bank robbers are born.
What is usually their end? They may die during a shootout with law enforcement officers or they will be arrested and sentenced to prison.
Parents should know when children are doing wrong and correct, and not indulged them. When we indulge our children, they see it as weakness on our part and take advantage of it. When that child takes to crime and is arrested, the shame will be on members of his family, including his parents.
Another area is the religious aspect; there are three ways in bring up a child. There is a triangle in bringing up a child.
In the church or mosque; this is when a child is going to church. The parents make him join members of that church and they monitor whether he takes his writing materials and jot what the pastor is teaching.
Whether in the school or church, the parents should check the note he or she is taking. They should be able to assist that child in memorizing certain bible passages.
The religious seeds planted at that particular time, will help him in life. Take the 10 commandments for instance, the part that stated thou shalt not steal will be remembered whenever he sees someone stealing.
He knows that aside from his parents’ warnings and caution that the bible also speaks against stealing and killing. This can also help him in fighting peer pressure.
However, when a child is brought up without being reprimanded, he’s very much likely going to take to kidnapping, armed robbery or others. Even when they work in offices, they end up syphoning the peoples’ money.
They become a menace to society, bad products because many of them failed to heed their parents’ advice. Those that listened to their parents, often turn out well. They become good products to society.
Ben Okezie is a security analyst, Editor-in-Chief of Crime Scope Magazine and also a columnist with The Sun Newspaper.
First Published 2020.
