ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses crime, social change and social control within the Namibian context; it gives particular reference to imprisonment as a form of formal and legal punishment in Namibia today. It also includes findings from the author's research with violent offenders in Namibian prisons from 1998 to 2000. To understand the relevance of studying crime and violence in post-independence Namibia, the chapter firstly locates this problem within the contexts of Southern Africa and Namibia's history. Rapid social change, which includes a growing increase in poverty and unemployment since independence as well as changes in social norms and values, most likely contributed to the escalation of crime in Namibia. Community involvement in prisons was recently introduced in Namibia and is encouraged by new legislation. In August 1998, the Prison Act of 1998 came into force. The new Act provides for community involvement in Namibian prisons to aid the rehabilitation of prisoners.
