Sports being used to reduce Youth Crime
One of the biggest problems around the world is the fact that youth crime is getting out of hand. A lot of solutions have been put forward and a lot of these are very good. It seems that young people turn to crime because of a variety of reasons; no sense of family structure, no positive role models, boredom and failure at school. One of the best solutions to this problem in cities around the world is to engage the youth in some way and the best ways seems to be to incorporate sports programmes into their lives. Sports programmes have been proven to effectively help reduce youth crime in trouble areas.
Structured sports programmes have a very positive effect on young people. They learn leadership qualities, learn to respect people, learn skills, have an outlet for aggression, learn to become part of a team and find a family substitute. A lot of different initiatives have been started across the world to try and tackle the problem of youth crime through sports. One of these is being employed by the police force in London. The MET started an event that worked with the Newham All Star Sports Academy or NASSA, which works with troubled young people and introduces them to sports. A small basketball tournament was played between teams made up of young people from the NASSA and the winners of the tournament got to play a game against officers of the London MET police force. The message of the event was, ‘carry a basketball, not a knife,’ and it was a very innovative and an interesting way to get young people to engage in a fun activity and stay out of trouble.
Sports and other programmes such as arts and craft activities have actually been proven to help reduce crime in poverty and troubled areas of cities. Many studies have been conducted that link the possibility that sports can reduce crime among the youth. Some of the solutions given are firstly that sports can be used as a very effective distraction. If a young person is playing a sport then they cannot be out committing a crime. Secondly sports can be used as a form of behaviour therapy because it can teach the value of morals, respect, teamwork, increase in self esteem, respect for authority and a family structure. Thirdly sports can be used as a broad therapy strategy. By using sports to engage young people can help them to take part in other programmes such as employment, drug rehabilitation and education. Most young people who join gangs and commit crimes lack a proper family structure and sports can be a very effective family substitute and keep kids off the streets and help them find friends and peers. Crime spikes have been linked to street gangs in big cities. A lot of research has been conducted and most of it indicates that young people seek comfort from those who welcome them and reinforce their sense of belonging. This inadvertently happens to be gangs and they become a pseudo family unit and friendship structure for many young people. Organized sport programs can be very beneficial in combating the power of gangs. Sports programmes can contribute to reducing youth crime by showing young people that they have positive identities, it can show them feelings of empowerment and it can also help youth acquire leadership, teamwork and self-governance skills under adult supervision. This just shows us the power that sports can have in helping young people turn away from a life of crime.
Over the years hopefully more sports programmes will be implemented in big cities around the world and we will see a reduction in crime among the next generation of our future leaders. By giving children and young adults an outlet for their talents and by giving them the option of a different path, they can be helped and made to become productive members of society. Most people know that sport is a very good activity to pursue for everybody but they probably did not know that it can also be used to help young people get back on the straight path and actually reduce crime as well.
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