Causes of vagrancy

There are many factors leading to the prevalence of vagrancy in our society. Among these, poverty, unemployment, inflation, and lowered levels of social, health, and educational services play a major part. We can classify these factors as follow:

A. Social Factors
1. Immigration from the countryside to cities. This leads to the construction of slums that are built without permission on the edges of cities. These areas are characterized by a low standard of living. Studies indicate that most street children come from these areas.
2. Poor conditions of the slums, lacking adequate lodging, education, health and entertainment services. Due to their haphazard construction, the street is the only place where inhabitants can conduct various daily activities such as washing clothes, cooking food and bathing. Consequently, children get used to life on the street.
3. A prevalence in the slums of young men of the age of majority and children, meaning more poor families and street children in the future.
4. Inadequate education. The failure of a child in school leads to his resorting to the street. Children leave school for the following reasons:
a) insufficiency of the educational process
b) shortage of educational aids and equipment
c) the short time of school days
d) the shortage of  qualified teachers
e) the inability of the family to send their children to school because of low income.
f) the failure of the child to succeed in a learning environment
g) the family�s need of money, resulting in sons sent to work instead of going to school.
5. Dependence on children in taking responsibility in view of the poor financial state of the family. Children are sent to work in fields or do trivial chores, while girls are sent to work in homes. It is widely known that street children face many types of dangers in their work.

B. Factors related to the family.
1. Disintegration of the family, leading to vagrant children on the street.
2. Orphanages which propagate the phenomenon of delinquency.
3. Residing with relatives in the case of the loss of father or mother, leading sometimes to weakness in family supervision.
4. Cruelty and violence of a parent, engendering escape to the street.
5. Favoritism of one child over another, generating jealousy and frustration and the desire to seek revenge against the family by fleeing to the street.
6. Too many children in a family, leading to generally poorer supervision.
7. Choice of residence in a bad neighborhood, with deleterious effects on the child.

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