Crime And Social Change In Nigeria

ABSTRACT

Every human society has its cultural ideals, those things it aspires

to, both materials and non-materials. It also prescribes ways that will

enhance the realization of these cultural ideals and also proscribes ways

that will impede it. But these are not static. As social changes occur, it

brings with new ideas, values, beliefs and the associated social progress

and problems. The social world can never be a problem free experience.

In our urge to live a more satisfied life, we try to solve such problems in

order to get to our goals based on our insatiable nature. We also, create

ideals and ways and means of attaining them. These designs come in the

forms of norms or social order which act as guide to the attainment of

the goals. Worthy of note here, is that, these ideals are the ideologies of

some particular individuals, which they think are good for the survival of

the society and the norms or laws are produced to protect these

ideologies and to compel people to pursue them. But surprisingly, some

people deviate from these norms.

However, the existence of rules and norms presupposes the

existence of deviation. Since man has the power of reasoning and free

will, he tends to deviate from these rules unless sanctions are enforced to

curb or channel his action in the correct and expected direction. Thus

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where there are rules or norms there is deviance. Deviance is therefore

the violation of the groups’ norms, expectations and values. It includes

social-problem deviance such as crime, delinquency, corruption, drug

abuse, sexual deviation in the form of prostitution, suicide and similar

actions which are departure from or perversion of the normal social

behaviour.

Crime as an integral part of deviance is one of the unintended and

undesirable consequences of social change. Indeed, social change may be

the cause or catalyst for the incidence of crime (Nsereko 2001). Some

criminologists attributed criminality in Nigeria to be the result or the byproduct

of “social change” resulting from pre-colonial to post-colonial

periods.

“Quoted in Isichei (1983:386-7) “Before, we were living peacefully

with out brothers, and always willing to share with our brothers, however

small a thing may be. But when Europeans introduced money, our

people became greedy for money. Some left for the towns to look for

money and never returned.”

Crime in traditional Nigerian societies consists of violations of

standard ways of behaviour, custom and tradition of the group such as

murder, theft, adultery, rape, incest and suicide.