By Matheus Pendapala Taapopi

By Matheus Pendapala Taapopi The relationship between crime and poverty

There are contradictions and self-imposed myths that continue to manifest in our society that beg for critical assessment, engagement and analyses. Relatively, we have a serious misunderstanding and misinterpretation of the relationship between crime and poverty, because we are ignorant and we have no appreciation of the historical constructs of our country and the current socioeconomic status quo that are contributing factors to crime.

Fallacious arguments continue to manifest in our social circles that misunderstand reasons and sources of unfavourable violent social behaviour. Strategies, policies, financial and human resources have been availed to ‘fight and combat crime’, yet these blanket interventions, including the community policing initiative, the ‘neighborhood watch’ that operates in affluent locations with very racist tendencies, have failed to prevent crime as evidence corroborates with the news in our daily newspapers. What we have set forth is a counter-revolutionary anti-black precedence of launching war against the wrong enemy, engaging on the wrong battlefield and fighting with the wrong weapons.

An analysis of the Namibian police’s weekly crime bulletins of 2015/16, illustrates that about 99% of the population in prison are from the black community and only 1% or less are from the white. Studying the reports further reveals that as compared to whites, 99,5% of blacks are relatively involved in crimes from armed robberies, assaults, theft, house break-ins, gender-based violence, rape and murder cases. While a breakdown of the findings inform that more blacks under 35 years old more are involved in these crimes. Alarmingly 25-year-olds are more than 79 times likely to be arrested for theft, murder or violent cases. Hence on a per capita basis; blacks commit more violent crimes than whites do.

All these crimes are characterised by common triple challenges of unemployment, poverty and inequalities. It is young people that are presently disadvantaged; it is young people that commit these crimes who are not in education, employment or training. And they all live in neighborhoods characterised by poverty and shanty towns. Because of this structural displacement, desperation, dehumanisation and hopelessness, last options are to disengage and employ survival strategies of crime to keep up and provide for themselves and their families.

These triple challenges of poverty, unemployment and structural inequalities are born from a historical construct of the white man’s colonialism and the apartheid legacy. For instance, the classical deliberate displacement that birthed Katutura which further extended to informal settlements; the subsequent birth of black markets and the Bantu education system exacerbated by the dispossession of urban land and farms unjustly acquired and compounded by the strategic economic sectors in the hands of the minority few who are white.

Crime is also provoked by the government of the day that have paid less attention and made little effort to address the manifestations and contradictions of the colonial and apartheid legacy and having failed to re-imagine, reconstruct, develop and deliver a cured, just, thriving and inclusive society beyond rhetoric. As a result blacks are institutionally excluded from social, political and economic opportunities. These are realities that explain the reasons for crime committed by young black men.

Our solutions should be combined with radical development and empowerment interventions to restore the dignity of the black man and woman. Instead of slogans and symbols, making institutions more inclusive is about changing the politics of a society to empower the poor, disenfranchised and the excluded is what is needed. Social investment, to the youth in rural communities, to free housing and free inclusive decolonised education funded by our natural resources, should be encouraged. Also education is key, for educated citizens and communities with higher education degrees report a higher level of employment, health and happiness. In fact, societies with a high rate of degree attainment have lower crime rates and higher rates of social welfare.

As Motsohi (2016) highlights; the International Labour Organisation has pointed out that; “young men and women are among the world’s greatest assets. They bring energy, talent and creativity to economies and create the foundations for future development”, however Freedman stated; “without a stake in the system, [young people] are more likely to become alienated and engage in anti-social behaviour (Freedman, 2005:4). It is philosopher Aristotle that warned a thousand years ago that: “poverty breeds criminal behaviour”. He meant to say that in politics poverty is the parent of revolution and crime.

*Matheus Pendapala Taapopo is a third-year student studying towards a Bachelor of Public Management (Hons) at Unam