Last week, the police arrested two youngsters on a charge of committing over 15 house break-ins and chain snatchings. And the reason behind the youth taking to the crime was that they were allegedly addicted to vices.
Both the youth were reportedly alcoholics and addicted to other vices, said DCP T. Ravi Kumar Murthy. Similarly, motorcycle thieves nabbed by the police last week had a similar track record and allegedly took to crime because of vices.
According to Assistant Commissioner of Police (CTF) I. Chittbabu, the majority of the youth who take to crime are from the middle or lower middle classes and they reportedly do it to fund their bad habits.
“Once they get a taste of easy money they get sucked into the vicious circle of crime. And once they find themselves in a desperate situation due to the addiction, they opt the crime route,” said Mr. Chittibabu.
According to ADCP (Crime) S. Varadaraju, the addiction is so strong that the moment the money is exhausted, they turn violent and take to some form of crime, be it chain snatching, cell phone or laptop theft, bike lifting or house break-in.
But what is alarming is the youth, including many engineering students, allegedly taking to drug peddling. “They first become addicted to drugs and later turn peddlers to meet the expenses,” said Mr. Chittibabu.
The CTF in the last one year detected 12 such cases where young students have turned peddlers only to fund their addiction.
“This is a societal problem and we need to address it differently. Policing alone is not the solution,” said Mr. Varadaraju.
“We need to address it holistically and every stakeholder such as parents, teachers and the law enforcing agencies are responsible. Both parents and teachers need to spend more quality time with the young minds and monitor their activities,” said Mr. Varadaraju.
Sumit Bhattacharjee
