Sociology of Crime in Sierra Leone

FOREWORD The urban and rural Sierra Leonean community has experienced crime of all sorts ranging from common crimes under the violent crimes such as rape, murder; property crimes such as burglary, larceny and shop lifting, Sims fraud and scam today' s cyber crime. Crime is perceived as a social behaviour that violates the law and is prone to legal action, conviction and compensation especially in civil matters. Crime is a disapproved behaviour in society. There is an overriding crusade by pressure groups to ensure that crime is contained. The idea of crime emanates with some understanding of poverty and improper social behaviour. This conception is based on proper social behaviour, wherein a community establishes general norms for conformity. The perspective of offenses against community, individual and property remain reasonably static, but the criminal context within these perspectives is divergent. Given an understanding of crime perspective is lodged by individual social response to the attitude that emerges with dynamics in cultural norms. The social lens must be a connection of existing social imagination of the community. The level of social contract is based on the context that social behaviour is approved rather than disapproved. There exist exhaustive line of curbing social disorder to ensure a protected home and a community. The situation about crime being disapproved is in the context what occurs nationally. Social disorder may be a cultural phenomenon operating whereby socially legitimate use of violence can affect the degree to which illegitimate and criminal violence takes place. Factors such as preference for violent cinema programmes; participation in socially approved violent activities, including school league sport competition; and the use of corporal punishments in schools shows district experiences, with high percentage in the metropolis. These high percentages of functional violence are correlated with high states of incarcerations. The acceptable levels of crime, then, may actually vary regionally, relying on the values individuals place on the legitimate use of social and legal punishments. Community understanding of violence may be complemented by community assistance on policing. There are districts variations in the bolster for crime conviction as a formal control of crime. In addition, support for crime and silence may be higher in rural areas than in the urban centers. The acceptance of social behaviour, then, is linked by an emphasis of legitimacy. Dysfunctional social behaviour within the boundaries of functionality does not exist in abstract but takes on similar characteristics on crime in Sierra Leone. The author Mr. Mohamed Bangura is a full-time lecturer one in the Department of Sociology, Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone. Ibrahim B.S Sesay - Ph.D. in Sociology Howard University-USA. Senior Lecturer and former postgraduate coordinator, Department of Sociology, Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone.