Homelessness and Social Crimes among Adolescents in Ilala District, Tanzania
Keywords:
Adolescents; Homelessness; Social Crimes; Ilala DistrictAbstract
This study was done in order to examine the determinants of homelessness and social crimes among adolescents in Ilala District; and expose the noticeable effects and ways to alienate its severity. Qualitative approach and case study design were used to collect qualitative data through the use of interviews and focus group discussions (FGDs) within a sample population of 10 police officers, 20 homeless adolescents, 11 social workers and 09 community members, which was obtained through snowball and purposive sampling. The obtained data were subjected to thematic analysis and presented in quotations of respondents’ voices. The findings indicate that most adolescents become homeless due unresolved family conflicts and suicidal attempts imposed to them, and deaths of parents and relatives’ dismissals, thus, enforced to engage in robbery, illegal drug dealing, commercial-sex work (prostitution), and kidnapping or raping young peddlers along streets for their survival. Those who happen to engage in such social crimes do face psychological complications, physical harms/burns, poor health supports and deaths, together with lockups and imprisonments. Therefore, as proposed by respondents in the study, the government authorities should set funds in order to either accommodate the homeless adolescents or send them back in their homelands, so as to uproot all the hooligans’ gangs that seem detrimental in the communities and maintain social homeostasis.
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