FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITH MALE YOUTH INVOLVEMENT IN VIOLENCE IN THE PUNJAB, PAKISTAN

Abstract

Youth violence and crimes in developing countries have been increased in general but in Pakistan and particularly in the Punjab, it is noticed more increasing more rapidly. The more recent increase in crime rates in developing countries has awakened a widespread concern about personal safety and property insecurity. Statistically every year, more than a million people lose their lives in violence and crimes. Violence is resultant from a variety of situations in young people’s lives as well as the experiences of childhood that can lead towards the serious consequences when they reach to adolescence which is called a stage of rapid development, uncertainty, experimentation and adventure. The increase of violence and particularly, the increasing involvement of youth in social and economic violence irrespective of them being victims or perpetrators have become a naked reality and a burden upon human, social, ethical and economic spheres (Moser, 2002). According to Pakistan’s population census of 1998, there were 34.3 million young people (male and female) between the ages of 15 to 29 years. According to the projections made by US Census Bureau, population of Pakistan in 2010 estimated to be 177,276,594 and the youth falling between the age of 15-29 years (53,265,671) contributes to 30.1% of the total projected population. Whereas the total number of male youth population (15-29) in 2010 was 267,800,000 that made 15.12% of the total population. A cross sectional survey was conducted, in three central jails (Faisalabad, Mianwali, Multan) selected randomly from the total 9 central jails in the Punjab. A sample of 400 convicted prisoners from the total of 1400 convicted prisoners 15-29 years {using the table for estimating sample size constructed by the Krejcie and Morgan (1970)} was selected randomly using the lists of prisoners arranged by the DIG Prisons. A sample of 250 family members/relatives/others was also selected conveniently at the time of their visit to the jail to assess the problems faced by them after the incident. A well designed questionnaire consisting of questions of both types open and close ended prepared in the light of the research objectives. Pre-testing of the questionnaire was also made to check the workability of the questionnaire and avoid the sensitive issues. Descriptive statistics such as frequency distributions, mean, standard deviation, coefficient of variation was used to generalize the data. Bivariate analysis such as Chi-square and Gamma tests were also used. Multivariate analysis such as correlation and regression were also applied for model building in order to assess male youth involvement in violence in the Punjab-Pakistan. The results indicate that 49.5% respondents belonged to the adolescent age cohort (15-19 years), 32.5% belonged to youth age cohort 20-24 and 18% belonged to young adult age cohort (25-29 years) with a mean age of 23.84. The research findings revealed that (29.75%) respondents were illiterate, and the remaining 70% found literate. From literate respondents (16.25%) got education up to primary level, 26.25% from sixth class to middle, 27.75% from 9 th class to above with a mean education of 5.73 years. According to the findings of the study 73.2% respondents belonged to rural areas and the remaining 26.8% belonged to urban areas. About fifty percent (49.5%) families were consisting of 7 or more than 7 members, 40.75% families 5-6 and the remaining 9.75% having 3-4 family members with a mean family size 9.51 members. About 15% respondents were student at the time of arrest, 7.5% had noting, 10.75% doing farming with their parents , 18.5% busy in business , 4.25% doing Govt. Job, 5.75% busy in private job and 38.25% were laborer at the time of their arrest. 23.5% respondents used drugs, and from them 45.46% respondents committed sex/rap after using drugs, 31.82% quarreling with people and 15.91% goes for robbery after taking drugs. The research findings revealed that 50.8% respondents committed first crime when they were 16-20 years old, and the majority (76.75%) of respondents committed murder at their first crime. About 44.8% respondents committed crime alone and 27, 25.8 and 2.5% respondents committed crime in the company of their friends, relatives and friends and other persons, respectively. There are several reasons/causes of committing crimes by youth. The main cause of committing crime was taking revenge 22.25%, followed by poverty 17.25% and peer pressure 10.25%. The other causes reported by the respondents were money conflict 9%, motivation of the media 8.25%, accidental/misunderstanding 7.5%, drug addiction 6.75%, sexual lust 6.25%, family disruption 6% and self pleasure/fun 3.75%. A substantial percentage 49.8% of the respondents was convicted more than 31 years, followed by 36.5% of the respondents who were given death sentence for their crimes, the next category of the respondents reported 21-30 years conviction for their crimes and their percentage was 37.3. The percentages of the respondents were 3.0, 4.0, 5.0 and 1.0 who reported up to 4 years, 5-9 years, 10-14 years and 15-20 years for conviction of crimes. The multivariate result shows that the index variable age has the highest negative value which is -0.221 highly significant at 1% level of significance indicating that the index variable age is the most important predictive variable in effecting the violent behavior of youth. The other significant variables are education having beta coefficient -0.102, father education -0.099, family size 0.097, father income - 0.138, self control -0.066, self esteem -0.121, family practices -0.195, community factors -0.128, educational attainment -0.153, gang/group membership 0.153 are significantly associated with violent xivbehavior of youth in effecting the male youth involvement in violence. The highest value of Pearson’s correlation coefficient all of variables age, education, education of the respondents father, education of the respondents mother, family size, economically active involvement, father income, self control, self esteem, Life satisfaction, family management, family practices, parents monitoring, community factors, educational factors and gang/group membership indicating that these variables are highly correlated with violent behavior of youth. The most important recommendation of the research is to educate the parents to promote positive climate at their homes and they should encouraged values such as respect, trust and cooperation. Also parents should monitor their children, where they are, who their friends are, when they are coming in and out.