The Social aspects of property criminality in Zambia

Abstract

Zambia has seen tremendous rise in crime. Most of the crime according to available statistical data, is crime against property because this type of crime constitutes the single largest crime category. This study restricts its scope of investigations to property crime and does not include other types of crime such as crime against the state, crime against the person; crime without victims and several other crimes. Various aspects have been examined in the study in order to determine the causal aspects of property crime and the reasons for its widespread. Theories of causes of crime, the socio-economic situation of property offenders, the property offenders' childhood experiences, the relationship of the theory of differential contact, the attitude of property offenders as regards alternatives and access to other means of survival and several other issues have all been examined in order to determine the extent to which they affect property criminality. Various findings feature prominently in this study. The first is that property crimes are most widespread of all crime categories in Zambia, as stated above, since they constitute the single largest crime category; secondly, property crime and the socio-economic status of an individual are closely related to a large extent; thirdly, property crime is a phenomenon of the young and declines with age; fourthly, education and property crime are related, the lower the level of education the more the individual is inclined to become a criminal and fifthly, the majority of property offenders were children of parents or guardians of low employment status and who had a history of law-breaking or criminality. Another prominent finding in the study is that males had a higher Inclination towards crime than females.