Socio-Economic and Demographic Features of Kidnapping in Nigeria: an Analytical Study
SOCIO-ECONOMIC AND DEMOGRAPHIC FEATURES OF KIDNAPPING IN NIGERIA: AN ANALYTICAL STUDY
Abstract
This study analyzed and reviewed the Nigerian print media coverage of kidnapping cases between 2005 and 2011. The focus of the study was to determine socio-economic and demographic features of kidnapping in Nigeria. Content analysis was adopted for the study as well as use of frequency tables for analysis of data. Anomie theory of crime based on Robert K. Merton’s analysis of Durkheim’s theory provided our theoretical frame work in this analysis. The study argued that a plethora of factors have been implicated as the causes of kidnapping in Nigeria. This paper recommends that some drastic measures be taken to nip in the bud the menace of kidnapping. One of such measures, the paper suggests, is to address the issue of unemployment in the country.
Keywords: Social problem, Kidnapping, Ransom, Niger Delta, Anomie theory
INTRODUCTION
Kidnapping is becoming a global phenomenon. Most countries of Asia, Europe, America and Africa have witnessed unprecedented wave and spate of violence and crime. Indeed Nigeria has witnessed various forms of militancy, violence and crime including kidnapping. Kidnapping, as a concept, poses a number of definitional problems in relations to a country’s legal and moral viewpoints as well as the availability of other variances such as hijacking and hostage taking. From different definitions, kidnapping could be tagged as a very serious contemporary crime which is relatively unheard of in contemporary Nigeria compared to robbery, burglary and other forms of social crimes. Yang et al (2007) attributes such relative obscurity to three reasons namely, rarity of the event itself, access to known kidnappers and data problem. As a rare even, researchers tend to see kidnapping as an insignificant criminal act which accounts for low research interest directed to it. In the second instance, getting access to known kidnappers is difficult in most
Abstract
This study analyzed and reviewed the Nigerian print media coverage of kidnapping cases between 2005 and 2011. The focus of the study was to determine socio-economic and demographic features of kidnapping in Nigeria. Content analysis was adopted for the study as well as use of frequency tables for analysis of data. Anomie theory of crime based on Robert K. Merton’s analysis of Durkheim’s theory provided our theoretical frame work in this analysis. The study argued that a plethora of factors have been implicated as the causes of kidnapping in Nigeria. This paper recommends that some drastic measures be taken to nip in the bud the menace of kidnapping. One of such measures, the paper suggests, is to address the issue of unemployment in the country.
Keywords: Social problem, Kidnapping, Ransom, Niger Delta, Anomie theory
INTRODUCTION
Kidnapping is becoming a global phenomenon. Most countries of Asia, Europe, America and Africa have witnessed unprecedented wave and spate of violence and crime. Indeed Nigeria has witnessed various forms of militancy, violence and crime including kidnapping. Kidnapping, as a concept, poses a number of definitional problems in relations to a country’s legal and moral viewpoints as well as the availability of other variances such as hijacking and hostage taking. From different definitions, kidnapping could be tagged as a very serious contemporary crime which is relatively unheard of in contemporary Nigeria compared to robbery, burglary and other forms of social crimes. Yang et al (2007) attributes such relative obscurity to three reasons namely, rarity of the event itself, access to known kidnappers and data problem. As a rare even, researchers tend to see kidnapping as an insignificant criminal act which accounts for low research interest directed to it. In the second instance, getting access to known kidnappers is difficult in most
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