CRIME AND PUNISHMENT IN NIGERIA: A STUDY OF PUBLIC PERCEPTION OF STATE LAWS AND CRIMINAL SANCTIONS

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT IN NIGERIA: A STUDY OF PUBLIC PERCEPTION OF STATE LAWS AND CRIMINAL SANCTIONS

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 x ix 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 XXX 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.

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT IN NIGERIA: A STUDY OF PUBLIC PERCEPTION OF STATE LAWS AND CRIMINAL SANCTIONS