Abstract

The research study was conducted in the South west region, Buea municipality, Cameroon. The aim of the study was to understand the impact of unemployment on the Youth criminal behaviour on the inhabitants of the Buea municipality. The primary question of this study was: what causes unemployment and how does unemployment affect the youth behaviours in the Buea municipality?

The study made use of Maria Jahoda Latent Deprivation Theory which indicated how unemployment affected individual behaviours and this related to the work. The sample consisted of at least ten participants aged between 25 to 45 years who were unemployed. Purposive sampling was used. In-depth interviews were used to collect the data that were analysed using the five steps of qualitative analysis.

The findings of the study revealed that unemployed youths in the Buea municipality spent their time with passive and purposeless activities and experience anger that may lead to scamming, theft, violence, prostitution, drug trafficking. In addition, the participants indicated that unemployed people lose not only their jobs, but also lose respect and their sense of self-worth .

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to study

According Tim Lambert (2016, p. 24), before the industrial revolution, unemployment was much less of a problem in the world than it is now. It existed of course but there not mass unemployment. In this brief history of unemployment, by mid 19th century, the economy boomed and unemployment rose in the late 19th century. It was not certain how much workforce was unemployed at that time but it was a significant problem (Tim lambert, 2016).

In Britain, during the 20th century as in other industrial countries, unemployment varied. In the year 1900-1914, the economy was stable and unemployment was quite low. However, during the 1920s, there was mass unemployment (Lambert, 2016, P. 25). For most of the decades, it honoured between 10% and 12%. The economic downturn, of course made things far worse. By the start of 1933, unemployment was 22.8%. However, unemployment fell in 1933, 1934 and 1935. By January 1936, it stood 13.9%. Unemployment continued to fall and by 1938 it was around 10% (Tim Lambert, 2016).

According to Lucia Ventura (2018) on how the world views unemployment, explains that the world unemployment rate is slowly decreasing. After 2014, it has essentially stabilised around the 5.5% mark with a total number of estimated unemployed persons exceeding 192 million. According to the International labour organisation (2018), Northern Africa features the highest jobless percentage in the world, 11.5 in 2018 with youth being over unemployed.

According to Kingsley Ighobor (2017, p.34), in Africa youths account for about 60% of Africa’s jobless according to the World Bank. In North Africa, the youth unemployment rate is 25% but is even greater in Botswana, the Republic of Congo, Senegal and South Africa among others.  In Africa, youth unemployment occurs at a rate of more than twice that for adults (Ighobor, 2017).

The term of unemployment can mean different things to different people. For example unemployment according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), is when persons above a specified age (usually above 15) are not paid and are currently available for work during the reference period.

According to Investopedia (2017, p.1) “Unemployment is a phenomenon that occurs when a person who is actively searching for employment is unable to find work”.  The focus of my study was on people who were looking for jobs, but were unsuccessful.

The concept of Unemployment is divided into different categories which includes what we refer to as ‘frictional unemployment’ which occurs during a period when workers are searching for new employment or transition from their old jobs to the new one. It is also referred to as natural unemployment.

Then ‘cyclical unemployment is that kind of unemployment that occurs when the number of unemployed far exceeds the number of job vacancies: This means that supply of labour exceeds the demand for workers. Structural unemployment is that form of unemployment that occurs when jobs are available and there are workers seeking for jobs, but the workers do not match the job and seasonal unemployment occurs when temporary, regularly expected phenomenon affects the number of available employment opportunities or a particular moment of the year when unemployment rate increases. That is a joblessness resulting from seasonal fluctuations in production and unemployment in fields such as agriculture, construction and tourism.

Voluntary unemployment and involuntary unemployment are the two broadest form of unemployment. Voluntary refers to that type of unemployment whereby a person has left his/her job willingly in search of other job and involuntary is when a person has been fired or laid off and now must look for another job, (Investopedia, 2017).

In Cameroon, the rate of unemployment according to Trading Economic, averaged 5.52 percent from 1991 until 2018, reaching an all time high of 7.2 percent in 2019. The Cameroon Development Challenge GESP (2015/2020) says that youth unemployment in Cameroon precisely in the Buea municipality was estimated at 8.10 percent and that promoting business start up is key for creating new jobs.

This rate is the highest since 1991, when unemployment hit the same level, but remained 5.12 percentage point lower than the highest seen since 2015 (Cameroon Development Challenge GESP, 2015/20). The above statistics indicate that unemployment is a major problem in Cameroon and explains why most youths in the Buea municipality turn practice illegal activities to sustain themselves and their families.

Unemployment contributes to some of the challenges that we face in the Buea municipality. Unemployment results criminal behaviours such scamming or in order words fraud, theft, arm robbery prostitution and many other illegal activities which are dangerous to the society. Korankye, (2004) says by reducing unemployment, these negative effects of unemployment  can not only positively improve the quality of life for the individual but also his/her family and society as a whole. Therefore, we cannot under look this aspect of unemployment.

The Main reason for this research was to gain an understanding on the criminal activities of youths as a result of unemployment. Therefore, the decision to carry out study at the Buea municipality was influenced by renounced recent criminal activities and high unemployment in the community. I was interested to know how the unemployed youths manage to cope with unemployment in this community and whether there are any efforts from government to assist the community.

In places such as the Buea Municipality, people especially youth’s turn to complain a lot about the high rate of unemployment despite the fact that they believe so much of having jobs after having degrees.

The unemployed youths therefore turn to carry out activities such as scamming, prostitution, scamming, theft and even arm robberies and many other illegal activities as a result of their frustration caused by lack of jobs. United State embassy in Cameroon (2019) observed a dramatic increase in fraud in recent years on foreigners and according the U.S embassy these scams can arrive in the form of unsolicited faxes, e-mails and poses the risk of both financial loss and personal danger to their victims.

The implications of unemployment in the Buea municipality have resulted therefore to all the high level of crime wave in this region of the Country. According to the Blacks law dictionary (1989) crime is an activity that’s illegal and is punishable by the law and which also involves activities not accepted by the country in question. From this definition it therefore means that activities such as theft, scamming, robbery are illegal as they aren’t accepted by the state.

1.2. Research problem

Unemployment is a national problem in Cameroon. The unemployment rate in the Buea municipality is very high and some of the youths turn to commit crime in order for them to survive, take care of their families and also to put food on the table. In the Buea municipality, unemployment is a major problem as it negatively affects the behaviour and even the psychological functioning of the unemployed youths. It is for this reason that some of this youths turn to practice illegal activities such as fraud or scamming, theft, arm robbery, scamming, prostitution and many others in the Buea municipality.

Even though some people especially the youths try to deal with unemployment by starting small businesses such as selling clothes, shoes and the most popularly known P and E (potatoes and eggs), while others commit crimes like selling stolen goods, fraud, theft and many others in order to put food on the table for take care of their families. This study seeks to investigate the impact of unemployment on the youth criminal behaviour/activities in the Buea municipality.

1.3. Research Question        

1. What are the causes of unemployment in the Buea municipality?
2. What is the link between unemployment and criminal activities?
3. What are the consequences of unemployment in the Buea municipality?

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