CRIME AND PUNISHMENT IN NIGERIA: A STUDY OF PUBLIC PERCEPTION OF STATE LAWS
CRIME AND PUNISHMENT IN NIGERIA: A STUDY OF PUBLIC PERCEPTION OF STATE LAWS
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Date
2000-06
Authors
IGBO, EDDIE MADUABUCHI
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Abstract
ABSTRACT
In Nigeria, the criminal code and the penal code prescribe and punish quite a
number of acts. The way the Nigerian public perceives these state laws and
sanctions have serious implications for the success or failure of the law and the
legal system in general to achieve set goals. What the public thinks, believes, , and
feels about the law and the legal system determines whether people actually turn to
law or turn away from it, whether they support the law or fight it, and therefore
whether the legal system succeeds in its social control functions or fails. Yet,
notwithstanding these incontrovertible facts, scholars and researchers in Nigeria
have paid only minor attention to this crucial subject. The present study is therefore
designed to fill this intellectual gap.
The basic research objective of the study is to conduct a survey of public
perception of criminal laws and sanctions in Nigeria. In this connection, six main
research questions were examined, namely: the level of public support for state
laws; public choices of penalty for survey criminal offences; the fit between
officially imposed penalties and public penalty preferences; the correlates of
perceptions of state laws and punishment; whether subgroups of the Nigerian
population vary in the way they punish offences; and finally, the level of public
consensus about the relative seriousness of offences.
Three major theoretical paradigms were examined in this study. These are
the consensus theory; the interactionist theory, and the marxist perspective. A
review of these theories showed that both consensus and interactionist theories are
unable to satisfactorily explain or account for the factors that determine the nature,
extent and pattern of public support for state laws and sanctions. Nor are the
assumptions they make suitable for explaining the nature, content and character of
state laws and sanctions in Nigeria. Because of these limitations, the two theories
were considered inadequate as theoretical tools for guiding the study. The marxist
perspective, especially the neo-marxist school, was chosen as the theory to inform
the study.
This is because of its relevance for understanding and explaining the
character and dynamics of the capitalist social order, which order is operative in
x v i i i
Nigeria. Marxist theory adequately recognizes the concrete material and historically
specific factors that shape both the character of state laws and sanctions, and the
perceptions of these by individuals and social groups. The theory submits that many
of the laws in Nigeria are biased in favour of the economically privileged class, and
to that extent those laws will not receive much public support. The theory admits
also that some laws exist the system which address the needs and concerns of the
poor and the underprivileged classes, and that this latter class of laws will be widely
supported by the public in Nigeria.
The research was conducted in four states of the country (known at the time
of fieldwork as Anambra, Kaduna, Oyo, and Bendel States) selected through the
multi-stage cluster sampling. In the final analysis however, the study used a sample
of respondents eighteen years and above taken from households that were sampled
randomly. Field data were collected from a total number of 2,048 respondents using
the structured interview. Secondary data were obtained from both police and prison
statistics as contained in the gazettes and annual reports of the Nigeria Police Force
and the Nigeria Prison Services respectively. Other sources of secondary data are
the criminal code book and the Federal Republic of Nigeria official gazettes which
published decrees passed by the Federal military government. The statistical
package for social sciences (SPSS) facility was employed for data analysis.
The analysis in this study suggest that: there is widespread public support
for the six survey laws. The distribution of support for surveyed laws showed that a
substantial majority of individuals within each of the socioeconomic and
demographic subgroups identified in the study supported each of the survey laws.
Each of the identified socioeconomic and demographic attributes of respondents
except their gender is related to support for one or more of the survey laws. That is,
the influence of socioeconomic and demographic factors is selective and restrictive
to specific laws. Support for state laws is also influenced by perceptions held about
laws by individuals. Other findings of the study are: that the public penalty demands
for survey crimes is governed by the perceived seriousness of respective crimes;
that penalty demands for crimes are influenced by the background characteristics of
individuals although in a "selective kind of way; that the public recommend as
adequate and fitting penalty 23years of imprisonment for the crime of drug
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trafficking, 20 years of imprisonment for counterfeit and fake drug, 12 years
imprisonment for fraud, 9 years imprisonment for stealing, 9 years imprisonment
for receiving stolen property, and monetary compensation for the crime of assault.
The research findings also show that there is discrepancy between public
choices of penalty and the penalties officially prescribed by law for all the survey
offences; that there is a high positive linear association between public choices of
penalty for survey crimes and the penalties imposed by law. Further findings are
that: subgroups of the Nigerian population vary in the way they punish offences;
and that there exists among the demographic subgroups of the sample, a very high
level of consensus about the relative seriousness of various criminal offenses.
In conclusion, the study attributes the widespread support exhibited by the
Nigerian public for the six survey laws as a reflection of the public's perception of
these specific laws as serving general interests i.e. interests which include concerns
of the dominant class and those of the underprivileged classes. Thus, this finding
does not assume that every other law in the system will be supported by the public.
To the contrary, it anticipates that those laws which are class- biased and partisan
will not be widely supported by the public. Furthermore, the fact that the various
subgroups within the Nigerian public widely supported the six survey laws should
not be misunderstood. It should not be misunderstood to mean that these subgroups
which demonstrate nominal support for these laws necessarily agree or concur
about the extent to which each of the six acts which they (subgroups) agree should
be criminalized in Nigeria constitute a serious offence. As revealed in the present
findings, subgroups in Nigeria agree that these acts are offensive and should be
criminalized, but they disagree (concerning each crime) about whether such crime
should be seen as a serious offence, or for that matter, as a highly serious offence.
This divergence between subgroups' perceptions is reflected in the present finding
that subgroups of the Nigerian population vary in the way they punish each of the
six survey crimes. It is in the light of the above exposition that the discrepancy
revealed between public choices of penalty and official penalty prescriptions should
be understood also.
A major recommendation of this study is that in order to sustain widespread
public support for state laws, or even to broaden support, effort should be made by
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state personnel to create laws that are just and equalitarian. That is, laws which
address the needs and concerns of both the rich and the poor, the haves and the
have-nots. But, more than that, a more permanent solution should lie in the
wholesome dismantling of the structures of socioeconomic inequality in Nigeria,
structures which are inherent in the economic system of capitalism and which
generate unequal laws. Unless this is done, the majority of laws in Nigeria will elicit
low or passive support, while only a few will receive the kind of wide public
support revealed in this study.
In the same manner, a radical restructuring of the capitalist social order in
Nigeria will redress the discrepancy observed between public choices of penalty
and state-prescribed penalties.
Description
DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY
FACULTY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES
AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY
ZARIA - NIGERIA.
Keywords
CRIME,, PUNISHMENT,, NIGERIAN,, STUDY,, PUBLIC,, PERCEPTION,, STATE,, LAWS,, CRIMINAL,, SANCTIONS.