FACTORS RESPONSIBLE FOR JUVENILE DELINQUENCY IN MUSHIN LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA, LAGOS STATE

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Juvenile delinquency, a social problem worldwide has been increasing drastically to the level of 30 percent since the 1990s according to (World Youth Report,Sheryln, 2008). Anti-social behaviors of young people has posed a lot of problems to the well-being of the people of Nigeria. Citizens, researchers and public officials perceive juvenile delinquency as a major social contemporary concern in Nigeria. Juvenile crimes witnessed in Nigeria include: drug abuse, cultism, bullying, truancy, examination malpractices, prostitution and the (Ugwuoke, 2010; Sanni, Udoh, Okediji, Modo & Ezeh, 2010). Shoemaker (2010:3), defined juvenile delinquency as “illegal acts, whether criminal or status oences, which are committed by youth under the age of 18”.

From this definition, it is pertinent to highlight the two types of delinquent oences associated with young people, herein referred to as juveniles. The first type of oence is a conduct that would be a criminal law violation for an adult, such as rape, burglary, robbery, etc. The other type of delinquent oence called „status‟ oences are delinquent conducts that do not apply to adults, such as running away from home, truancy, etc (Alemika&Chukwuma, 2001; Alfrey,2010). The origin of juvenile delinquency in Nigeria dates back to the 1920s when youth crimes such as pick pocketing and prostitution became predominant issues in Nigerian newspapers in that period.

This ugly trend led to the establishment of judicial administrative processes by the colonial administrators to deal with juvenile delinquents (Fourchard, 2006).It is appalling that the worrisome issue of juvenile delinquency still plagues the contemporary Nigerian society in a serious dimension (Muhammed, Salami , Adekeye, Ayinla and Adeoye,2009). However, the problem of juvenile delinquency is not peculiar to Nigeria. In 2007, the law enforcement agencies in the United States of America reported 2.18 million arrests of juveniles (Alfry, 2010). Alfry also reported that the United States Bureau of Justice Statistics found out that 72% of jailed juveniles came from fragmented families.Juvenile delinquency, also known as “juvenile offending”, is participation in illegal behavior by minors (juveniles, i.e. individuals younger than the statutory age of majority). Most legal systems prescribe specific procedures for dealing with juveniles, such as juvenile detention centers, and courts. A juvenile delinquent in the United States is a person who is typically below 18 (17 in New York, North Carolina, New Hampshire, and Texas) years of age and commits an act that otherwise would have been charged as a crime if they were an adult. Depending on the type and severity of the offense committed, it is possible for people under 18 to be charged and treated as adults.

According to World Youth Report cited in Sheryln (2008), the rate of criminal activity among juveniles in groups in the Russian Federation is about three to four times higher than that of adult oenders. Motivated by the increasing rate of juvenile delinquency in Britain, Juby and Farrington (2001), examined juvenile delinquency and family disruption in a longitudinal survey of South London males from age 8 to 46. The researchers found out that 29% of the boys from disrupted families were convicted as juveniles compared with 18% of the boys from stable families. It is certain that family disruption was one of the contributory factors to the upsurge of juvenile delinquency in Nigeria. Juvenile delinquency is also seen as teenage crime. It is like any crime that human beings commit but these crime differ because they are committed by young people. Before coming of age girls and boys have less understanding of the world. Parents, friends and teachers are all responsible along with the juvenile who commit a crime. This is why courts do not punish the teenagers like they punish the adults when they commit a crime. There are separate juvenile courts and the purpose of juvenile punishment is to help the teenager understand the importance of staying away from crimes. There are various theories of juvenile delinquency and various researchers have reported different reasons of delinquency. Most of the delinquent teenagers belong from low social, economical or psychological background. Here the researcher intend to examine the factors that mitigate juvenile delinquency in Nigeria, using mushin local government area as her case study.

1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Juvenile delinquency according to (Muhammed et al 2009)is a major social problem which affects the whole society and constitutes a serious impediment to development in Nigeria. For example in Owerri municipality today, crime is common among the young people, many of who are caught in one criminal act or the other such as examination malpractice, armed robbery, assault, rape, house breaking, forgery, truancy e.t.c. (Nwankwo, Nwoke, Chukwuocha, Iwuagwu, Obanny, Okereke and Nwoga, 2010). Lack of supervision arising from family instability is linked with juvenile delinquency (Alfrey, 2010). According to Alfrey, children in singleparent families tend to receive lower levels of supervision. Alfred opined that, inadequate parental supervision has a tendency to increase the likelihood of juvenile delinquency. Dogget (2004), has it that when there is one parent living in the home as opposed to two, it is more difficult to supervise children all the time .

According to Dogget, every day activities like errands and work must be completed by the single parent, which leaves no parent in the home. Because of this, children in single-parent homes tend to receive lower levels of supervision (Sanni et al, 2010). Lack of parental monitoring contributes not only directly to children‟s anti-social behaviours, but also indirectly as it contributes to exposing them to associate with deviant peers, which is predictive of higher levels of deviant acts (Okorodudu, 2010). From observation, it seems that parents and care givers are not doing much in the supervision of their children in Nigeria because of their numerous economic and social engagements. This scenario tends to be giving impetus to juvenile delinquency in Nigeria and Owerri Municipality in particular. Muhammed et al (2010) have observed that young people in contemporary Nigeria are mostly involved in armed robbery, cultism, kidnapping, drug abuse and other criminal activities. In corroborating this fact, the Imo state commander of National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) lamented that the young people were the most involved in illicit drug usage and dealing (Nkwopara, 2011).The consequences of this malady and other juvenile crimes such as; examination malpractice, alcoholism, forgery, rape, e.t.c in Nigeria include; social violence among youths, armed robbery, mental disorders, lack of respect for elders and other numerous social ills. In the light of the nauseating problems of juvenile delinquency in Nigeria and Owerri Municipality, scholars and concerned citizens have attributed the menace to various factors such as; poverty, peer pressure, family instability, drug abuse and so on(Nwankwo et al 2010).

While recognizing these other causes, this study seeks to focus on family instability and its contribution to juvenile delinquency because “the family has a crucial role to play in the development of a conforming or delinquent personality (Igbo, 2007:89)”.As a result, this study aims at bridging the gap in studies on juvenile delinquency and also to investigate the factors responsible for juvenile delinquency in Mushin Local Government Area.

1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The priority of this study is to ascertain the factors responsible for juvenile delinquency in Mushin Local Government Area. The researcher intend to cover the following sub-objectives in this study: i) To examine the level and causes of juvenile delinquency in Mushin Local Government Area. ii) To examine how the adolescent’s family background contributes to the causes and levels of delinquency in the area. iii) To access the school’s contribution to the causes and levels of truancy and juvenile delinquency in Lagos State. iv) To examine the social and society’s contribution to juvenile delinquency in Lagos State. v) To proffer possible solutions to the aforementioned problems and challenges in Nigeria.

1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

Based on the above statement of problems in this study, the following research questions will guided the study 1. To what extent does students contributes to juvenile delinquency in Mushin Local Government Area? 2. To what extent does juvenile’s family background acts as a contributing factor to truancy and juvenile delinquency in Mushin Local Government Area? 3. To what extent does the school environment contributes to the problem of juvenile delinquency in Mushin Local Government Area? 4. To what extent does the society contribute to juvenile delinquency in Mushin Local Government Area?