Value Deficiency, Employment Generation and Crime among Youths in Nigeria: An Overview

Abstract

Value deficiency and crime among the youths reflects the plethora of contemporary societal challenges that appear to inhibit social progress and national development. This paper therefore discusses value deficiency, employment generation and crime among youths in Nigeria. It examines the relationship between value deficiency and crime among youths in Nigeria despite several government efforts at employment generation. This paper argues that, although employment is a critical requirement for youths to realize their potentialities and release their contributory efforts to national development, the burden of value deficiency appears to vitiate such efforts and propel youth towards increasing crime. The paper identifies factors such as degradation and relegation of values as the causes of value deficiency in the Nigeria society. This paper adopted the Social Impact Theory [1] to emphasize its points. Secondary data collected from previous researches and analysis of scholars to demonstrate the facts stated here were analyzed using the descriptive method. The study finds that value deficiency increases the incidence of crime among youths and vitiates the efforts at employment generation in Nigeria. It recommends among others that youth development strategies must necessarily include value re-orientation and further re-orientation programmes and this requires the active support of the family, the community and the government.