Dear Editor,

CRIME can be defined in many different ways. Different societies may also choose to define crime differently. However, in general, crime can simply be defined as “the breach of laws that are laid down by the ruling authority of the land”.There can be many different causes of crime, and many studies are conducted all around the world to understand and bring down criminal activities. It is a constant endeavour of governments and policing organizations all around the world to bring down the crime rate so that the world becomes a safer place to live in.

The fight against crime is not a new undertaking by humanity, who has, since the establishment of society, tried to bring the rate of crime down.

I list some of the major causes of crime in Guyana. The first major cause of crime is POOR FAMILY CONDITIONS.

In our country, we have lots of people who engage in living home and single-parent relationships. In some cases, some women have children for more than seven, or even ten, different fathers. Most times, these fathers would leave these women alone with those children, plunging them into poverty, which will push young people to commit crimes.

The family structure is severely damaged in Guyana. As a Reverend or pastor, I have visited hundreds of broken homes and seen real poverty and human degradation. In most homes where there is a missing father or mother, children are brought up with a single parent or a grandmother, aunts or uncles, and there is no one to guide them spiritually, morally, and academically. These children will either become school dropouts or will never have the chance to attend school. Most of them will become illiterates being pushed into a life of crime.

Even the rich and educated can sometimes live lives of broken marriages, and their kids grow up on drugs, alcohol, and become total failures in society.

Sometimes fathers and mothers will brag and boast about how many children they have, but when asked about these children’s achievements, they decline to say their sons are thieves or live ghetto lives, or their daughters are in prison.

Parenthood in our country has deteriorated beyond repair.

Another major cause of crime is DRUG USE:

A person addicted to drugs is unable to support the addiction, so they end up in a life of crime to fuel their drug habit. Most criminals use drugs before they commit a major robbery that involves murder, rape, arson etc.

Besides that, a large number of people are involved in the drug trade. Though these people may not really be drug users themselves, they often lure others into drugs and crime – murder, prostitution — to get rich off of those people’s efforts. Though we see the small man on the streets committing crimes, there are bigger motivators behind them controlling and directing them how, where, and when to make a hit.

Most criminals in Guyana are either illiterates or are dysfunctional illiterates, so they would need bigger masterminds to craft details of their plans. Most small-time criminals will never call the names of the masterminds when they are caught and interrogated by the police.

TV AND MOVIE VIOLENCE
TV violence has gone up to staggering levels, and it does not help when people are influenced and try to emulate such acts of violence. TV violence is a major cause of crime, especially among younger people who are unable to differentiate between fiction and reality. Since TV has become such an integral part of people’s lives these days, it is important to draw clear lines between what is real and what is not.

With the advent of I-pods, I-phones and computers, it is easier for people to download movies of a violent and evil nature. People who feed their minds on murder movies, violence, and violent music eventually will live a life of crime.

Jesus said in Matthew 6:22-23
“The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!”

Bad company is another cause of crime in Guyana. Some very decent kids associate with wicked kids, thus the wicked kids influence the good kids to do wrong things. It’s not so easy to train your child properly and send then to a school or university to amalgamate among hundreds of untrained students. They suffer from peer pressure and do all sorts of things you will never expect them to do.

Money is another bad influence on young people’s lives. Some parents are to be blamed; they give their children sums of money beyond their expectations to spend, and that child grows up with an attitude never to learn to work hard and save; so they follow bad company in a lifestyle to “get rich quick” then they get involved in crime, though they may be educated and rich, because for some parents it’s great to give their children any and everything they asked for, which is definitely wrong.

I know of many rich educated teenagers who don’t work. Their parents give them everything up to age 25, so they find things to do that’s easy: use drugs and thief, then they ended up in jail or die young. This is because their failed parents never taught them to be responsible at a very young age.

In conclusion, we need to bring back the family structures by teaching our children to be responsible, and we need to live a life of marriage and be excellent parents for these children. Poverty, illiteracy, drugs, easy money, TV violence, bad politics, failed churches and organizations have contributed significantly to crime, and the nation has deteriorated.

The wise man King Solomon wrote:
“Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”
Proverbs 22:6

If we teach our children moral and spiritual values, we will live in a crime-free society and our prisons will be empty. Real education starts in our homes and with our parents. I believe the major problems facing our country are moral, spiritual, and educational. We need all three to live decently in society.

Yours truly,
REV. GIDEON CECIL