A RESEARCH ON CRIME AND DELIQUENCY IN NIGERIA
CRIME AND DELINQUENCY IN NIGERIA
by: Francis Jackson
Institution: University of Jos
Faculty/Department: Sociology
Year: 2015
INTRODUCTION
On
a Sunday evening at New Garage, Gbagada, December 2009, the sharp scream of a
mother pierced the air “Gbomo gbomo ti gbo mo mi (Kidnappers have taken
my child)”. Her scream got the attention of the neighbourhood. Her left arm was
pointed at a middle-aged man who was moving at a fast pace, under his arm was a
boy. The previous week an old woman had attempted such an act and she was
surrendered to the authorities because of her age. In this case the fate of the
kidnapper was different. The arid mob got hold of the man and he was set
ablaze. ‘Fortunately’ for him a police patrol van was passing by. Two officers
alighted and ran towards the scene causing the crowd to disperse. They ran pass
the wailing victim with fumes from his tangled body filling the air with the
smell of burning tire and stench of burnt skin. Apparently the aim of the
officers was to make an arrest because the alleged kidnapper was left alone
till he could no more utter a word. The silence that filled the air made it
possible to hear the sound of the fire burn. The body was left to decompose on
the main road for the next 48 hours. The purpose of this real life event is to
illustrate the consensus on crime in Nigeria. A zero tolerant level have been
developed paving way for jungle justice, that would probably have been
non-existent if the law enforcement agencies are half as effective. Relating to
the illustration above the police were only interested in making an arrest that
they would probably benefit from with the bail money. But crime as we know
sadly has surpassed kidnapping. It can escalate into a crisis. In existence are
also white collar crimes that are carried out with pens and buttons of a
computer. A million dollars scam is a click away giving way for creative get
rich quick schemes. This paper focus on crime and the effects both within the
shores of Nigeria and overseas, providing excerpts from Newspapers and online
materials. The benefit is a vast knowledge composed of text book knowledge and
contextual information of the topic at hand.
DEFINITION OF CONCEPTS
Deviance: According to American sociologist Marshall B. Clinard, the
term should be reserved for ‘those situations in which behaviour is in a
disapproved direction, and of a sufficient degree to exceed the tolerance limit
of the community’. Deviance may be positively sanctioned (rewarded), negatively
sanctioned (punished), or simply accepted without rewards or punishment. In
terms of Clinard’s definition, crime and delinquency are the most obvious forms
of deviance.
Crime: It refers to those activities which break the law of the
land and are subject to official punishment.
Delinquency: It refers to the criminal activities of young people.
Why do people engage in Crime?
If
we consider the statements of accused criminals the answer would be “the
devil”. On Thursday 14th of May, the Punch Newspaper reported the
story of a man, a 45-year-old drum maker, Tanimowo Hunge, who kidnapped his son
and demanded a ransom of One-hundred thousand Naira from the uncle. When he was
caught ‘amidst continuous sobs, he confessed to the crime claiming it was the
devil that pushed him into such act.” While that is the reality from the words
of culprits, other theories have their view of why people engage in crime.
Social Learning Theory
According
to social learning theory individuals learn to engage in crime, primarily
through their association with others. They are reinforced for crime, they
learn beliefs that are favourable to crime, and they are exposed to criminal
models. This follows the popular saying ‘show me your friend and I will tell
you who you are’. As a consequence, they come to view crime as something that is
desirable or at least justifiable in certain situations. The primary version of
social learning theory in criminology is that of Ronald Akers and the
description that follows draws heavily on his work. Akers’s theory, in turn,
represents an elaboration of Edwin Sutherland’s differential association theory[1].
According
to social learning theory, juveniles learn to engage in crime in the same way
they learn to engage in conforming behaviour: through association with or
exposure to others. Primary or intimate groups like the family and peer group
have an especially large impact on what we learn. In fact, association with
delinquent friends is the best predictor of delinquency other than prior
delinquency. However, one does not have to be in direct contact with others to
learn from them; for example, one may learn to engage in violence from
observation of others in the media.
Most
of social learning theory involves a description of the three mechanisms by
which individuals learn to engage in crime from these others: differential
reinforcement, beliefs, and modelling.
Differential reinforcement of crime
Individuals
may teach others to engage in crime through the reinforcements and punishments
they provide for behaviour. Crime is more likely to occur when it (a) is
frequently reinforced and infrequently punished; (b) results in large amounts
of reinforcement (e.g., a lot of money, social approval, or pleasure) and
little punishment; and (c) is more likely to be reinforced than alternative
behaviours.
Reinforcements
may be positive or negative. In positive reinforcement, the behaviour results
in something good—some positive consequence. This consequence may involve such
things as money, the pleasurable feelings associated with drug use, attention
from parents, approval from friends, or an increase in social status. In
negative reinforcement, the behaviour results in the removal of something bad—a
punisher is removed or avoided. For example, suppose one’s friends have been
calling her a coward because she refuses to use drugs with them. The individual
eventually takes drugs with them, after which time they stop calling her a
coward. The individual’s drug use has been negatively reinforced.
According
to social learning theory, some individuals are in environments where crime is
more likely to be reinforced (and less likely to be punished). Sometimes this
reinforcement is deliberate. For example, the parents of aggressive children
often deliberately encourage and reinforce aggressive behaviour outside the
home. Or the adolescent’s friends may reinforce drug use. At other times, the
reinforcement for crime is less deliberate. For example, an embarrassed parent
may give in to the need of her screaming child in public. Without intending to
do so, the parent has just reinforced the child’s aggressive behaviour.
Data
indicate that individuals who are reinforced for crime are more likely to
engage in subsequent crime, especially when they are in situations similar to
those where they were previously reinforced.
Beliefs favourable to crime
Other
individuals may not only reinforce our crime, they may also teach us beliefs
favourable to crime. Most individuals, of course, are taught that crime is bad
or wrong. They eventually accept or “internalize” this belief, and they are
less likely to engage in crime as a result. Some individuals, however, learn
beliefs that are favourable to crime and they are more likely to engage in
crime as a result. Kidnappers in the Niger-Delta have been indoctrinated with
the belief that their actions is the struggle for their emancipation and commit
such criminal act.
Few
people—including criminals—generally approve of serious crimes like burglary
and robbery. Surveys and interviews with criminals suggest that beliefs
favouring crime fall into three categories. And data suggest that each type of
belief increases the likelihood of crime.
First,
some people generally approve of certain minor forms of crime, like certain
forms of consensual sexual behaviour, gambling, “soft” drug use, and—for
adolescents—alcohol use, truancy, and curfew violation.
Second,
some people conditionally approve of or justify certain forms of crime,
including some serious crimes. These people believe that crime is generally
wrong, but that some criminal acts are justifiable or even desirable in certain
conditions. Many people, for example, will state that fighting is generally
wrong, but that it is justified if you have been insulted or provoked in some
way. Gresham Sykes and David Matza have listed some of the more common
justifications used for crime. Several theorists have argued that certain
groups in our society—especially lower-class, young, minority males—are more
likely to define violence as an acceptable response to a wide range of
provocations and insults. And they claim that this “subculture of violence” is
at least partly responsible for the higher rate of violence in these groups.
Data in this area are somewhat mixed, but recent studies suggest that males,
young people, and possibly lower-class people are more likely to hold beliefs
favourable to violence. There is less evidence for a relationship between race
and beliefs favourable to violence.
Third,
some people hold certain general values that are conducive to crime. These
values do not explicitly approve of or justify crime, but they make crime
appear a more attractive alternative than would otherwise be the case.
Theorists such as Matza and Sykes have listed three general sets of values in
this area: an emphasis on “excitement,” “thrills,” or “kicks”; a disdain for
hard work and a desire for quick, easy success; and an emphasis on toughness or
being “macho.” Such values can be realized through legitimate as well as
illegitimate channels, but individuals with such values will likely view crime
in a more favourable light than others.
The imitation of criminal models
Behaviour
is not only a function of beliefs and the reinforcements and punishments individuals
receive, but also of the behaviour of those around them. In particular,
individuals often imitate or model the behaviour of others—especially when they
like or respect these others and have reason to believe that imitating their
behaviour will result in reinforcement. For example, individuals are more
likely to imitate others’ behaviour if they observe them receive reinforcement
for their acts.
Social
learning theory has much support and is perhaps the dominant theory of crime
today. Data indicate that the people one associates with have a large impact on
whether or not one engages in crime, and that this impact is partly explained
by the effect these people have on one’s beliefs regarding crime, the
reinforcements and punishments one receives, and the models one is exposed to.
Functions of Crime and Delinquent
acts
Emile
Durkheim discussed crime and delinquency in his book The Rules of
Sociological Method: He argues that crime is an inevitable and normal
aspect of social life; it is ‘an integral part of all healthy societies’. It is
inevitable because not every member of the society can be equally committed to
the collective sentiments’, the shared values and moral beliefs of society.
Individuals are exposed to different influences and circumstances, it is
‘impossible for all to be alike’. Nigeria is a multi-cultural state and there
are bound to be clashes of beliefs. For example, some tribes still uphold the
belief that their kings must be buried with servants that would serve him in
the afterlife. These servants are usually buried alive. This act is obviously a
crime and the law is usually broken to uphold this custom.
Durkheim
also states that crime is not only inevitable, it can also be functional. He
argues that it only becomes dysfunctional when ‘its rate is usually high’.
Social change begins with some form of deviance. In order for change to occur,
yesterday’s deviance must become today’s normality. Since a certain amount of
change is healthy for society, so it can progress rather than stagnate, so is
deviance. Nigeria like most African countries that were colonised could be
described to have progressed due to the expression of individual originality
that deviated. Youths that the British regarded as delinquents during the
colonial era are regarded as national heroes that contributed to our
independence struggle. In Durkhein words ‘crime is an anticipation of the
morality of the future’. Thus heretics who were denounced by both the state and
the established religious institutions may represent the collective sentiments
of the future. In the same way terrorists of freedom fighters may represent a
future established order.
Albert
K. Cohen sees crime and delinquent acts as the expression of discontent. This
could be harmless this way protecting the social order. For example, Cohen
suggests that ‘prostitution performs such a safety valve function without
threatening the institution of the family’. It can provide a release from the
stress and pressure of family life without undermining family stability, since
the relationship between a prostitute and her client usually avoids strong
emotional attachment.
Cohen
also suggests that certain deviant acts may provide a useful warning device to
indicate that an aspect of society is malfunctioning. They may draw attention
to the problem and lead to measures to solve it. It becomes dangerous when it
is ignored. The rampant kidnapping in the Niger-Delta for example could have
been avoided after a symbiotic agreement was reached after the first act. It
acted as a signal of their discontent with the way ‘their’ resources was being
exploited at their expense.
Critics
of this two scholars were quick to identify their views placed the blame of
criminals and delinquents on the society and moved away from psychological or biological
causes. Also they do not explain why particular individuals or groups appear to
be more prone to deviance than others. Nor does it explain why certain forms of
deviance appear to be associated with particular groups in the population.
Crime and Delinquency in Nigeria:
Current Issues
If
anyone ask the Commissioner of police or any other high ranking law enforcement
official about the crime rate, their likely answer would be ‘the battle is a
tough one but we are winning it’. Meanwhile, if an average Nigerian is asked
about the effectiveness of the police, he or she might bluntly say ‘Almighty
God, not police is our protector’.
These
contrasting views lead us to accept statistics as the form of assessment. There
is a saying by a musician that “men lie, women lie, numbers don’t”. It would be
wise to quickly point out the flaws in using figures. Nigeria is not a state
highly ranked in terms of record keeping. Information is usually misinformation
to the extent that for more than three months the nation was in the dark if the
president was alive or dead. This is why this discuss would be supported with
articles from newspapers that tackle the issue at hand. A cross section of the
newspapers in Nigeria reveals a horror in the crime scene.
Punch
Newspaper, Page
5
Monday,
February 8 2010
Close
shave with death in the hands of a son
Abigial
Nwajei whose son, Nnamdi,, tried to murder two days to 2010 on an allegation
that a church revealed that she was behind his misfortune tells her story
Page
6
Kidnappers
free PDP secretary’s son
Unidentified
kidnappers have released Abiodun, the eldest son of the Peoples Democratic
Party’s National Secretary, Alhaji Abubarka Baraje.
Punch
Newspaper, Page
7
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Father
Kidnaps son, demands N100,000 ransom
A
man abducted his son, alerted a family member and demanded a ransom from his
extended family
Wife
caught with drugs, two years after husband’s arrest for kidnapping
Faith
who has been taking care of the couple’s four children since her husband was
caught and subsequently jailed for trafficking in cannabis in June 2008, was
arrested for similar offence.
Punch
Newspaper, Page
5
Wednesday,
April 12, 2010
We
sell fake certificate for N3,000
The
war against certificate forgery and examination fraud paid off in Lagos on
Friday as security agents in conjunction with the West African Examination
Council caught a gang
who
specialized in selling fake certificates.
11-year-old
stabs mother to death
The
Victim, Yaya, saw her son with sunglasses and queried him threatening to kill
him with a knife. He pounced on her for daring to ask where he got the item
from and allegedly grabbed the knife from her and began to stab her.
Fuel
attendants beat driver to death
The
Ondo state police command has commenced investigation into the death of a
commercial bus driver, Ismaila Sani, allegedly in the hands of fuel attendants
in Ikare Akoko, Ondo state.
Punch
Newspaper, Page
7
Tuesday,
February 9, 2010
Police
yet to investigate alleged forgery of Yar’Adua’s Signature
Police
authorities in Abuja are yet to commence investigations into a petition to the
Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Ogbona Onovo, alleging that president
Yar;Adus’s signature on the controversial N353.6bn supplementary budget for
2009 was forged.
Page
8
FIRS
official jailed six months
A
federal high court in Lagos on Monday convicted a 36-year-old official of the
Federal Inland Revenue Service, Oladele Okunowo, and senenced him to six months
imprisonament in fake tax clearance certificate…with an option of N200,000
fine.
NAFDAC:
Businessman arraigned for importation of fake drugs
The
National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and control, has arraigned a
Kano state based businessman, Uche Uzor, before a federal high court in Lagos
for alleged importation of large quantity of fake Lonart tablets.
Discussion of newspaper reports
A
quick glance of the excerpts above shows crime and delinquent acts has no age
limit and varies from murder, forgery, and kidnapping. The impression given by
official statistics that crime is a working-class phenomenon is simply due to
the selective application of the law. Frank Pearce, a Marxist, who has carried
out studies about white collar crimes in his book Crimes of the Powerful states
that in monetary terms, criminal activities of the working class are a drop in
the ocean compared with the huge sums illegally pocketed by private enterprise.
White collar crimes are also perpetuated involving government officials in
Nigeria. The most recent being the forgery the then president Yar’Adua’s
signature on the supplementary budget. The financial worth of these crimes are
hundred fold that of armed robbery which are more violent. The downside of
focusing solely on articles is that they are known for only publishing
sensational stories that would appeal to the masses. This is why they are known
as the mass media. This leaves little room for crimes which might be seen as
petty but are crimes. On the next page bar charts of crime statistics in
Nigeria from 1994 – 2003 complied by the research department of CLEEN
foundation[2].
Figure
1: Bar chart of Murder, Attempted murder, Manslaughter and Suicide Statistics
Figure
2: Bar chart showing Assault, General harm and wounding, theft and other
stealing statistics
Figure
3: Bar chart of Escape from lawful custody, bribery and corruption, gambling,
and forgery of currency note
Figure
4: Bar chart of Attempted suicide, child stealing, slave dealing, kidnapping,
and menace statistics
Discussion of Bar charts
Although
the figures available were from the years 1994 to 2003 we can still arrive at a
projective conclusion from analysing the trend. From face value we can conclude
that ther is a downward slope of major crimes except murder and kidnapping,
Also there is a noticeable difference of all crimes in the years 1999 and 2000,
either a sharp increase or decrease. This could be as a result of several
factors including the presidential elections. However the authenticity of the
figures would come into question, for example, only 36 cases of bribery and
corruption was recorded in 2003. This figure is laughable compared to an
average Nigerian expectation. These figures also contradict the report released
by the International Society for Civil Liberties and the Rule of Law which
states 34,000 people have been killed in Nigeria though unlawful means since
1999[3]. In a statement issued in
Onitsha by the chairman of Intersociety’s Board of Trustees, Mr. Emaka
Umeagbalasi, and the Head of Publicity Desk, Mr. Justus Ijeoma, the group said
the killing included those perpetrated by security agencies, vigilance groups
and the military. These alleged killings would obviously be omitted from
records especially when those who are supposed to uphold the law are the
ones breaking it.
Yahoo! Yahoo! A new breed of crime
among In-School Aged Children in Nigeria
Ten
years ago, most of the world knew little of nothing about the internet. It was
the private enclave of computer scientists and researchers who used it to
interact with colleagues in their respective disciplines (Kahn and Cerf, 1999).
The emergence and growth of new technologies for communication over the latter
decades of the twentieth century is often regarded as ‘information society’.
The enormous growth of internet connectivity in association with the
development of other electronic communication technologies has resulted in changes
in many sphere of the society. The internet has become a key element in what is
seen as globalization of society, providing technology that recognises no
national boundaries, that has no single owner, and that is not regarded or
controlled by any single national or international legal framework. Yet, the
internet is found in every nation, providing information and contact
instantaneously to anybody at any point on the globe. All major businesses have
adopted it as a means of communication and nongovernmental organizations have
found it to be an invaluable tool. Most recent estimates suggested that the
‘total number of internet users worldwide by 1999 was between 150 and 180
million with estimates that the expected numbers would rise to one billion by 2005
(Slavin, 2000).
Internet
crime is the unlawful conduct carried out with the use of computers, electronic
and ancillary devices. It is unauthorised access, system interference, data
inception, intellectual property theft, fraud and using computer to abuse data
and sabotage networks. The evolution of the internet led to a resurgence of
another revolution of crime where the perpetrators commit acts of crime and
wrongdoing on the World Wide Web. Internet crime also known as ’Yahoo Yahoo’
takes many faces and is committed in diverse fashions. The table below shows
the top 5 countries in the world whose citizens are enmeshed in Internet crimes
for years 2001 through 2008.
Table
1: Top 5 Countries that Perpetrated Internet Crimes – 2001 to 2008
Countries
|
Year
2001
|
Year
2002
|
Year
2003
|
Year
2004
|
Year
2005
|
Year
2006
|
Year
2007
|
Year
2008
|
United States
|
87.6 %
|
76.7 %
|
76.7 %
|
78.75%
|
71.2%
|
60.9%
|
63.2%
|
66.1%
|
Nigeria
|
2.7%
|
5.1%
|
2.9%
|
2.87%
|
7.9%
|
5.9%
|
5.7%
|
7.5%
|
Canada
|
2.5%
|
3.5%
|
3.35
|
3.03%
|
2.5%
|
5.6%
|
5.6%
|
3.1%
|
Romania
|
0.9%
|
1.7%
|
1.5%
|
0.92%
|
0.7%
|
1.6%
|
1.5%
|
0.5%
|
United Kingdom
|
0.9%
|
–
|
1.3%
|
2.32%
|
4.2%
|
1.9%
|
15.3%
|
10.5%
|
Source:
IC3 2001-2008 Internet Crime reports (January 1, 2001 to December 31, 2008)
Prepared by the National White Collar Crime Centre and the Federal Bureau of
Investigation.
From
the above table, Nigeria was second in the year 2001 with 2.7%. Nigeria retained
the second position with 5.1% while Nigeria was third with 2.9% in the year
2003. In year 2004, Nigeria still maintained the third position with 2.87% even
though this year recorded the lowest perpetration of internet crimes involving
Nigerians. In year 2005, Nigeria moved to second position with 7.9%, and third
repeatedly in years 2006, 2007 and 2008 with 5.9%, 5.7% and 7.5% respectively.
A
research was conducted by Amosun and Ige comprising of nine hundred and thirty
students (930) selected through multi-stage sampling technique from secondary
schools in South Western Nigeria. Results indicated that in-school aged
children perpetrated fourteen of the fifteen cyber crimes tested in the study.
Use of another person’s name and social security number to obtain goods and
services (identity theft) is the most common internet crime carried out by
in-school aged children, and that they learnt internet crimes through friends,
magazines and websites.
When Crime and Delinquent becomes
Crisis: A view of the Recent Jos Crisis
On
Sunday 7th of March, 2010 while some Nigerians were probably
returning from church and others resting in the comfort of their homes after a
long week of work plus heavy traffic in Lagos. Three villages in Jos south LGA
of Plateau state was witnessing a horror most of them would never get a chance
to tel. Mass killings were going on in the villages of Dogo Nahawa, Rasat and
Jeji, a sad case of ‘terrorism, murder, and arson’. Sectarian violence is not a
shocker in the north but it still brings surprises in this period which is why
there are speculations that it is all political. The police Public Relations
Officer, Mr. Emmanuel Ojukwu 121 were arrested and would be charged with unlawful
possession of arms and arson. The unanswered question remains ‘What was the
genesis and who sponsored the attacks?’ The National Chairman, Youth Wing, PFN[4], Dr, Abel Danima accused some
security agents of complicity in the Jos crisis. “How do you explain a
situation where the governor of a state says there is curfew and nobody must go
[out] except the soldiers who were on patrol, only for people in Army uniform
to go out and start killing Christians?”
Crime and Delinquents: A solution
According
to Marxists theories a society without crime is inevitable as long as the
forces of production and all that it entails are in the hands of private
ownership. Thus, a socialist society in which the forces of production are
communally owned should result in a large reduction of many forms of crime. In
theory, individual gain and self-interest should be largely replaced by
collective responsibility and concern. There is some evidence to suggest that
societies which have moved further along the road to socialism (for example,
Libya) have a lower crime rate.
Crisis
including the Jos crisis and the Niger-Delta unrest is a signal to a faulty
socialization process, socialization filled with egocentric views where
individuals are instilled the collective view of their tribe and not the
nation. This was the purpose for initiating the National Youth Service Corps
programme but the major flaw is that the individual have to have graduated from
a tertiary institution. What then happens to the population that would not
benefit from the four walls of the university?
The
effects of Yahoo Yahoo have made Nigeria the topic of discussion on Oprah (an
international talk show), CNN[5], BBC[6] News and any other
international platform anyone could think of. This has dented the image of
Nigeria making the Federal Government kicking off an international branding
campaign. To most researchers it comes as a shock that of the perpetrators are
youths who can hardly compose an email with grammatical error. Yet they are
intelligent enough to exploit the innate nature of greed in man. There is no
doubt that they are creative and it is only necessary they are education to
divert their ‘talent’ into a positive use. A restructure of the education
sector to reduce the number of youths who sit at home idle, waiting to get
admitted into tertiary institution would be advised.
In
general a better standard of living enables the mind to flourish positively.
References
Amosun,
P.A. & Ige, O.A. (2004). Internet Crime: A New Breed of Crime among
In-School Aged Children in Nigeria. The African Symposium. Pg.90- 98.
Biersledt,
R. (1963). The Social Order. An Introduction to Sociology, (2nd
Ed.) New York. .McGraw-Hill.
Durkheim,
E (1964). The Division of Labour in Society. Translated by George
Simpson. New .
York. Free Press
Ellwood,
C. A. (1955). Psychology of Human Society. New York : Free Press
Hegan,
J. (1989). Structural Criminology. New Brunswick: Rutgers University
Press.
Merton,
R. K. (1968). Social Theory and Social Structure. New York: Free Press.
Slavin.
J. (2000). The Internet and Society. Cambridge MA: Polity Press
The
National White Collar Crime Centre (2009), IC3 2008 Internet crime report.
(January 1,
.
2008 to December 31, 2008). Retrieved June 8, 2010 from http://www.IC3.state.gov.
. Pg 1-29.
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