An Assessment of the Link between Youth Unemployment and Crime in Obudu Local Government Area of Cross River State, Nigeria: Fixing the Hinges

Abstract

Youth unemployment is one of the many problems confronting the globe. Every continent of the world is faced with youth unemployment challenges but this situation seems to be worst in developing countries where Africa and Nigeria is part of this ugly situation is catastrophic and destructive to our youth as well as the society in the present and in the future. This is because of its tendency to induced deviant and criminal behaviour. This study bothers itself with an assessment of the link between youth unemployment and crime in Obudu Local Government Area of Cross River State, Nigeria: fixing the hinges. It adopted the Anomie theory, propounded by Robert Merton (1957) and Robert Agnew (1992) strain theory to explain the problem of youth unemployment. The study employed survey design and adopt quantitative (questionnaires) and qualitative (Key Informant Information) techniques of data collection. The completed questionnaires were subjected to analysis using Statistical package for Social Sciences (SPSS) to generate a table of frequencies and percentages. The generated and analyzed data were interpreted in relation to Youth unemployment and crime in Obudu Local Government Area of Cross River State, Nigeria: fixing the hinges. The findings revealed a connection between youth unemployment and crime. It was concluded that unemployment is capable of pushing the idle and jobless youths into deviant and criminal behaviour. The work recommends an all hand on deck immediate approach to contend the hydra-headed problems of youth unemployment and crime in Nigeria.