Drug Abuse and Exacerbation of Violent Crime among Youths in Calabar Metropolis in Nigeria’s Cross River State

Abstract

The study examined the incidence of drug abuse and violent crime among youth Calabar Metropolis. The study specifically examined the relationships between drug abuse and armed robbery, sexual assault, cultism and exacerbation of Violent Crime among Youth in the study population. The descriptive survey design was for the study. The purposive and simple random sampling technique was used for selecting the research participation. The instrument for data collection was structured questionnaire. The standard mean deviation was used to analyse the respondents' responses. ANOVA (Analysis of Variance) was used to statistically test the study hypotheses with a significance of 0.05.The finding of the study revealed that armed robbery, sexual assault, and cultism have a significant relationship with incidence of drug abuse among youth in Calabar Metropolis. The study concluded that the impact of incidence of drug abuse among the Nigerian youth is a cog in the wheel of progress as well as a malaise that malaise the growth of the youth vis- a –vis the society. It was recommended among others that, as a matter of urgent concern government should initiate both reactive and proactive policies and programmes aimed at creating public awareness and sensitizing the masses about the risk associated with indulging in drug abuse. Also, as the saying goes, charity starts at home, therefore parents should teach their kids good morals and reorient them to on the negative effects of drug abuse and violent crimes on their health, society, and human dignity.