WELCOME TO KENTERPRO:
JUVENILE DELINQUENCY AND REHABILITATION IN AMMA DARKO

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

• BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

In every society, there are sets of norms which members are expected to observe, however, not every member of the society abides by those norms. Members who live contrary to the set norms are referred to as delinquents. Juvenile delinquency according to Ben-Yunusa (1998) initially has to do with children’s offences, misconduct or crime for which, it is thought, they are not directly responsible. Bello (2006) observed that delinquent behaviours have assumed an alarming proportion in Nigeria.

Nigerians are disturbed and anxious as they are concerned about the problem of delinquency in which today’s youths involve themselves. The issue of juvenile delinquency is being discussed on television, radio, newspapers and journals and recently on the internet. This cankerworm seems to survive despite efforts made by religious and moral education
teachers to eliminate them through the inculcation of moral values in schools. English and English in Ben-Yunusa (1998) defined delinquency as a relatively minor violation of legal or moral code by children or adolescents. However, no delinquent act should be considered as minor because any act of delinquency can result to serious damage. Juvenile delinquency according to English and English is such behaviour by a young person (usually 16 or 18 years depending on the state code) that can bring him to the attention of a court. In a broadest sense according to Ben-Yunusa (1998), a delinquent act is any behaviour of a young boy or girl that can be objected to by more senior members of a society.

Juvenile delinquency is that behaviour on the part of children which may, under the law, subject those children to juvenile court. Tappan (1972:12) assert that “the nature of juvenile delinquency sprang up from different abnormal behaviour such as stealing, drunkenness, burglary, robbery, rape, homicide, idleness, truancy, prostitution, disobedience, running away from home, kleptomanism and sexual promiscuity. Furthermore, it is nothing but a fact to say that juvenile offenders who after serving a good or complete numbers of his or her punishment in prison and still continue in deviance is because they are associated with adult prisoners. In this regard Mr. Sanusi, project Director of Lawyers continued Education Project (LAWCEP) maintained that “in our society, where the process of trial is delayed unduly, the young offender spends more time with hardened criminals than elsewhere.

Different forms of delinquency have been with man as far back as we can think but modern trends have made them take a very sharp rise. Glucks (2000) found out that juvenile delinquency is not a new occurrence during adolescent years but rather a continuation of anti-
social behaviours from childhood due to environmental subjections or family problems affecting his mental development. That is to say that there exit a close link between delinquency and the home environment of the juvenile. The earliest known code of laws (the Code of Hammurabi) took specific note of the duties of children to parents and prescribed
punishments for violations. As legal systems were elaborated, the age of offenders continued to be important in defining responsibility for criminal behaviour.

Juvenile Delinquency is a major concern worldwide. Juvenile Delinquency is one of the major issues relating to causes ranging from war and unemployment to parental incapacity (UN, 1950). Statistical data in many countries show that delinquency is largely a group phenomenon. Between two-thirds and three-quarters of all offences committed by young people are committed by members of gangs or groups, which can vary from
highly structured criminal organizations to less structured street gangs. Even those young people who commit offences alone are likely to be associated with groups (United Nation).

Juvenile Delinquency is widely considered a complex problem that exacts a substantial and continuing toll on the society (Mulvey, 2007). It occurs in both
simple and complex societies and is often a result of affected relationships between a group of individuals leading to maladjustment and conflict (Haque, 2012). Abotchie (1997) posits that, for societies with accepted modes of conduct, deviance is predictable.

Juvenile delinquency is a serious challenge to the family, public safety, the lives of young people themselves and law enforcement agencies at large. This means that the
country would have to bear a lot of cost in dealing with issues of crime. It is a major challenge most children go through regularly and this to a large extent affects their
physical, psychological and societal needs at large (Brown, 2005). According to UN Centre for Societal Development and Humanitarian Affairs (2000), delinquency has increased because of political, social and economic instability across Africa. To this end,
juvenile delinquency is a situation every country tries to curb not losing sight of the fact that if young offenders are not nurtured well, they may grow to become criminals (Hess & Drowns, 2010).

Looking at the social reality of African today, one is tempted to ask “how did we get here?” According to Mbembe (2001) the social reality in Africa after colonialism is
characterized by violence according to a number of scholars of the continent. This scholar suggest that the many coups in the post-independence era, military dictators and autocratic rulers, civil wars, the collapse of economies and the consequent cases of grand-scale corruption, and internal state of anarchy in many countries in Africa in the period following independence account for Africa’s state of juvenile delinquency which has continued to hunt even the new generation. In this political and social chaos, youths have been implicated either as victims or perpetrators in some form or another given that some estimates suggest that they make up 80% of the continent’s population (Niebuhr, 2002). This social category is most affected by declining standards of living, diminishing possibilities of employment and therefore a life defined by poverty. It is inevitable that the many unemployed young men and women added to the rising numbers of the urban poor and disadvantaged resort to crime and violence as a means of accessing material goods. Commenting on the status of the youth in Africa, Filip De Boeck and Alcinda Honwana (2005: 1) write: “… children and youth are often placed at the margins of the public sphere and major political, socio-economic, and cultural processes. The challenging situation on the continent makes young people particularly vulnerable.” When economies are weak and unable to serve the needs of the citizenry; when a nation-state experiences poor governance; or even when faced with invasive forces of globalization, the youth suffer most

Through the decades there have been many trends in rehabilitation programmes for juvenile delinquents, and many evolving methods are coming up to help stop or reverse the growing problems through juvenile justice system. Juvenile justice system is a comprehensive term for dealing with children who come into conflict with the law (Griffin, 2010). The system is categorised as criminal justice system, civil justice system, administrative justice system and the informal justice system such as customary/traditional courts or tribunals. However, the aspect of using literature as a rehabilitative tool for juvenile delinquent has been overlooked by scholars and education stakeholders. Literature encourages bad behaviours and upholds good ones for the betterment of the society. This is why literary artists have been, from time immemorial, discouraging deviant delinquency with the aim of curbing juvenile delinquency.

Literature is a fictitious and non-fictitious commentary on behaviours of human beings in a society. This why Iortyer (2020) said that literature is an imaginative commentary on human society. Literary artists serve as watch dogs for the society. They look at for problems which are confronting the society. They criticize the behaviours and encourage the good ones. Writers like Amma Darko have worked on the street children and the juvenile behaviours they engage in. it is in the light of this that the present study seeks to examine Juvenile delinquency and rehabilitation in Amma Darko with the aim of proffering solutions where necessary. In line with the above discussion, this study seeks to examine juvenile delinquency and rehabilitation in Amma Darko’s Faceless.

• STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Juvenile delinquency has contributed to the bad image of our country (Nigeria). For the fact that most of the delinquent want to get rich quick, corruption and ritual killings has become the order of the day in coming to our political sphere, they have turn politics into a do or die affair where thuggery and fighting is the norm. This has made politics in our country (Nigeria) a dangerous venture. In recent times, activities of bandits, cultists, robbers, terrorists and other juvenile delinquent activities of some individuals in Nigerian and Africa as a whole has thwarted the development of the country and continent at large. These juvenile behaviours comes as a result of consumption of hardrugs, bad friends and lack of home training on the parents’ side.

Literary artists as societal watch dogs stand to criticize the activities of these juvenile delinquents which shatter the peace and unity of the society. It is in trying to look for a way out of these social problem that the researcher has seen the need to examine juvenile delinquency in literature using Amma Darko’s Faceless with the aim that literature can be used as a rehabilitative tool for juvenile delinquents since other rehabilitative programmes seem to be failing or proving ineffective.

• PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

The main purpose of this study is to examine Juvenile delinquency and rehabilitation in Amma Darko’s faceless.

Other specific purposes of the study include:

1. To determine the causes of juvenile delinquencies as portrayed by the writer.
2. To examine how the writer has presented instances juvenile delinquencies in faceless.

• To examine how the writer rehabilitated her characters.
  • RESEARCH QUESTIONS

The following research questions were raised to guide the study in line with the purpose of the study:

1. What are the causes of juvenile delinquencies as portrayed by the writer?
2. How has the writer presented instances juvenile delinquencies in faceless?
3. How has the writer rehabilitated her characters?
   • SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The significance of this study cannot be emphasised especially now that Nigeria and Africa are moving towards destruction as the result of the activities of robbers, cultists, terrorists, bandits and other juvenile behaviour of modern day youths.

The study will chart a way forward to solving juvenile delinquency in modern society as it will present ways in which the writer rehabilitated her characters who are juvenile delinquents.

The study when concluded, will add to the already existing body of knowledge on literary works, as it will also serve as reference materials for future researchers who will want to also research on the same topic or text.

• SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The study covers juvenile delinquency and rehabilitation in literary works of arts. Due to time and financial constraint, the research work will be limited to this topic and the text in question. However, even though analysis is restricted to Amma Darko’s Faceless, it will make references to other critical and artistic works that are relevant to the study. The findings of this work will be applicable to our society as the text reflects our country Nigeria and Africa as a whole.

• CONTEXTUAL DEFINITION OF TERMS

Juvenile Delinquency: Is the act of participating in unlawful behavior as a minor or individual younger than the expected age Juvenile crimes can range from status offenses (such as underage smoking/drinking), to property crimes and violent crimes.

Rehabilitation: The action of restoring someone to health or normal life through training and therapy after imprisonment, addiction, or illness.

• BIOGRAPHY AND WORKS OF THE WRITER

Amma Darko was born in Tamale in 1956 from Northern Ghana, she moved years later to the Ashanti Region. She studied at the University of Kumasi, where she received her diploma in 1980. Afterwards she worked for the technology consultancy centre. Then, in 1981, she travelled to Germany, now she is living in Accra, the capital city of Ghana. She is working as a tax inspector; this work gives her a lot of inspiration because she deals with interesting cases and people. She is married and has three children, so all together there is not as much time for writing as she would like to do.

On her writing, Darko had always loved books, but books were hard to find when she was growing up. She especially missed books about the experience of ordinary people living in contemporary Ghana. She chose a radical solution to her problem to write those books. Her first novel was published in Germany under the little Der Verkaufte Traum (Schmetterling Verlag, 1991) and consequently in English as Beyond the Horizon (Heinemann, 1995). It is the story of a Ghanaian woman who finds herself in a German brothel through a marriage fraud. The book was ranked among the top twelve of the 1995 Feminist Book Festival in Britain. Her second novel, The House Maid (Heinemann, 1998), explores the complex relationship in contemporary rural Ghana where modernity, delivered through the media, increasingly penetrates tradition, but finds little nurturing soil for lack of education. Her third novel, Faceless (Sub-Saharan Publisher, 2003) tells the story of street children in contemporary Accra. With a sense for naturalistic detail and humor, Darko explores the vicious cycle created by the worst injustice while placing the story into a larger socio-political context.   

1.9 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

Naturalism

According to Hagan (2012: 171-175), control theories have a long history. Shaw and Mckay’s Social Disorganisation Theory, Informal Social Control Theories of Reckless and Sykes and Matza’s theory, are forerunners to Hirschi’s (1969) Social Control Theory. Shaw and Mckay’s ecological studies of 1942 helped to refine their theory which asserts that crime is the result of social disorganisation in which the environment impacts negatively on the individual. When the environment fails to provide positive socialisation in instances of extreme poverty, homelessness, deviant peer and community culture, individuals resort to crime (Hagan, 2012: 165).