Scrutinizing the role of sports in community development and crime prevention in Katima Mulilo, Zambezi Region of Namibia

Abstract

Sport has long been credited as a beneficial tool for encouraging progressive social change and tackling continuing community obstacles, highly notably crime and anti-social activities. This paper scrutinize the role of sports in community development and crime prevention in Katima Mulilo, Zambezi Region of Namibia. A mixed design approach was employed for this study as this strategy was found to be ideal and suitable to collect and analyse data. Participants comprised of n = 103 relevant stakeholders from crime and law fraternity, at-risk youth partaking in sports programs, their instructors/coaches and mentors, community leaders. A purposively sampling approach was employed to choose participants and communities enthusiastically engaged in related programs. A stratified random sampling strategy was also utilized for choosing common community members for scrutiny to guarantee fair representation. Data was collected using interviews and questionnaires to get in-depth required data. Interview and questionnaire gathered qualitative data was transcribed and  analysed thematically, whilst quantitative data was analysed using statistical software SPSS. The results of this mixed study shows that sports in drive young people from doing negative activities by 93%, whilst sports promote the youth’s health and well-being by 85%, sports also provide a sense of belonging to local youth community by 57% and lastly sports strengthen social cohesion within local communities by 57%. Sports improved young people’s psychological outcomes by 96%, whereas again sports offered a safe space for the youth by 82%, it also provided the participants with role models and mentors by 78%, it reduced the risk factors by 70% and it taught them life skills by 52%. Numerous studies have shown tangible of evidence that sports play a transformative function in adopting strong community development and substantially helping crime prevention efforts. By offering organized activities and a positive setting, sports performances efficiently involve youth, directing them away from reckless conduct and participation in the fairness system.