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Socioeconomic and criminological attributes of convicts in two Nigerian prisons
JournalofCriminal
0047-2352188 $3.00 + .OO Copyright 01988 Pergamon Press plc
Justice Vol. 16, pp. 197-206 (1988) All rights reserved. Printed in U.S.A.
SOCIOECONOMIC AND CRIMINOLOGICAL ATTRIBUTES OF CONVICTS IN TWO NIGERIAN PRISONS
ETANNIBI
‘MOLU ALEMIKA
Department of Sociology University of Jos Private Mail Bag 2084 Jos, Nigeria
ABSTRACT This article examines the socioeconomic backgrounds, patterns of offense seriousness, and sociolegal correlates of length of prison sentence of a sample of convicts in two Nigerian prisons. Presentation of the empirical analysis is preceded by an outline of Nigeria’s socioeconomic and politicolegal structures to provide a systemic appraisal of the nation’s crime and penological features. The results of the investigation show that the inmate population is drawn from the young, poorly educated, and politically and economically disadvantaged groups. The lengths of prison sentences imposed on the convicts were found to be related to type of crime, age, preincarceration income level, and prior record. Older convicts, those convicted of violent property crimes, and lower- income earners generally received longer prison sentences. Paradoxically, convicts with prior conviction records generally received shorter prison sentences.
lance, and imprisonment. This knowledge may also lead to an appreciation of a nation’s crime problem in relation to its sociopolitical and economic structure. This article examines the socioeconomic and criminological backgrounds of a sample of convicts in two Nigerian prisons. An analysis of (1) the pattern of offense seriousness among the inmates and (2) the sociolegal correlates of the lengths of their sentences is presented. To show how societal factors determine which socioeconomic groups are processed through the criminal justice system and how they are treated, the relevant features of Nigeria’s political, socioeconomic, and legal structures are discussed.
INTRODUCTION The socioeconomic characteristics of prison inmates, the patterns of offense seriousness among convicts, and patterns of criminal justice dispositional outcomes reveal much about the sociopolitical, economic, and legal structures of a society. Therefore, the types of crimes for which inmates are incarcerated, their socioeconomic backgrounds, and the sociolegal correlates of the lengths of their sentences provide considerable insights into (1) the character of the society’s laws, (2) the types of conduct most subject to control by criminal law enforcement, and (3) the groups who are most vulnerable to criminality, legal surveil197
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Colonial
Background
‘MOLU ALEMIKA
of the Legal System
Nigeria’s evolution as a nation-state occurred during the century long (1861-1960) British colonial domination and exploitation of the various communities that existed within the geopolitical space it now occupies. Contact between these communities and the Euro-Americans predated formal colonialism. Although the effects of abductions of Africans as slaves by Euro-Americans continue to be felt, it was the British colonial administration that foisted a state structure on the area’s more than two hundred relatively autonomous political and linguistic groups. Colonial domination and exploitation of Nigeria was motivated by the needs of England’s developing capitalist economythe need for cheap raw materials and a monopoly on market outlets for the products of British industry. Thus, colonialism precipitated the emergence of a capitalist economy and corresponding political and legal structures in Nigeria. As Professor Ekeh (1980:3) has said, the colonialization of Africa was intended to create new economic structures and opportunities receptive to the expansion of European capitalism.
In consequence, The moral and social order which formally encased the precolonial indigenous institutions is burst by the social focus of colonialism and they seek new anchors in the changed milieux of colonialism (1980: 17) and post-colonial Nigeria. The English legal system was introduced in Nigeria by the colonial administration after the military invasion and conquest of Lagos, the violent dethroning of King Kosoko of Lagos in 18.51, and the establishment of the colony in 1861. Subsequently, Ordinance Number 3 of 1863 was enacted. Sections 1 and 2 of the ordinance provided that all laws and statutes applicable in England as of January 1, 1863 would become applicable in the colony of Lagos beginning March 4, 1863. This enabling ordinance was revised and reenacted as often as new territo-
ries were acquired or annexed during the colonial era. The first British-type prison was established by the colonial authority in 1872 and was located on the Broad street in Lagos. The first English-type police force was cstablished in 1861, when the British consul in Lagos was authorized to form a consular Guard with an initial strength of thirty men. Before the end of the nineteenth century, several police forces with both civil and military functions had emerged in different parts of what became, in the 1914 amalgamation, the Colony and Protectorates of Nigeria. There was a two-tiered police force system (the federal Nigeria Police Force, established in 1930, and local government forces) until 1967. when recommendation for the integration and centralization of the various forces under the Nigeria Police Force was made and implemented by the federal government. Today the Nigeria Police Force is the only policing authority in the country, with a strength of more than 100,000 men and women. The nation also operates a centralized prison system, which presently consists of 121 prisons and 228 lock-ups. The court system, however, is divided into local. state, and federal jurisdictions. The nation’s legal and criminal justice systems and the statutory bases for their existence have undergone little substantive change or reform since the British relinquished formal political domination in 1960 (Alemika, 1983). Since independence, the economic and legal structures bequeathed by the British colonialists have continued. Nigeria’s legal and criminal justice systems emphasize intense enforcement against conventional ‘street’ property crimes. This orientation is a continuation of the colonial penal heritage. For example, Lugard, the most influential colonial governor, under whose leadership Nigeria emerged as a country in 1914, advised his political officials that the form of the punishment inflicted must be that which is most deterrent and most likely to suppress crime. Native courts must be instructed that the restitution of stolen property or of an abducted person is
Socioeconomic
and Criminological
not of itself a sufficient penalty. (quoted Milner, 1972:92, emphasis added)
Attributes
in
The traditional African restitutive, arbitrative, and conciliatory modes of dispute resolution (which some western societies have begun in recent years to regard as possible models to use in reforming their legal systems) were judged inadequate for the colonial situation. In his extensive study of the criminal justice administration in colonial and post-colonial Nigeria, Milner (1972) observed that Imprisonment is heavily used for stealing and associated offenses, presumably on the basis that these are the offenses which have caused so much concern in recent years and so are dealt with severely with the intention of deterring . (p. 96, emphasis added) Milner summed up his observation of the penal scene in colonial and post-colonial Nigeria as follows: If it is possible to generalize about the basic attitudes displayed in the application of the British-type criminal law by the introduced courts, one may say that they are repressive and oriented towards deterrence. (1972:268) Because the British colonial occupation was aimed toward fulfilling England’s economic needs, the legal system imposed on the Nigerian people emphasized maintenance of the ruling power’s property interests. Furthermore, because the relationship was one of domination and exploitation, it could only be maintained by repressive laws and a punitive correctional system. This heritage continues to haunt the Nigerian legal and criminal justice systems and inhibit the development of alternativecorrectional-rehabilitative systems. Colonialism
and Economic
Development
Colonialism precipitated regional imbalances in economic development and especially a disparity between urban and rural areas. Colonial administrators and merchants gave primary attention to those regions with the greatest potential for pro-
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Prisons
ducing primary products required for British industries. The lopsided focus on cities (many of which were created by the colonialists, for examples, Lagos, Jos, Ibadan, Port Harcourt, etc.) by both colonial and post-colonial governments resulted in mass rural-urban migration. The unskilled and uneducated or barely educated youths, who were ill-prepared for employment in the modern sector, comprise the largest number of migrants to the urban centers. A very significant proportion of them have exchanged rural boredom and insufficiency for misery, poverty, and homelessness in the city. Regional imbalance and rural-urban migration, together with slow or stagnant economic growth (and sometimes actual shrinkage of opportunities) under a condition of high population growth, has created a large pool of unemployed, poor, and aggrieved youths in Nigerian cities. If the nation’s wealth were distributed more equitably or if the burdens of the market economy on lowincome earners were ameliorated through welfare programs to fulfill needs for food, housing, education, and health, perhaps the scourge of poverty could be reduced. But this has not been done. It is against this background that Nigeria’s crime problem must be understood. The Crime Problem
in Modern
Nigeria
The nation’s crime problem has deepened in the last fifteen years. Paradoxically, the accelerated criminal activity, especially in property crime, has coincided with the substantial economic growth and prosperity witnessed by the country between 1970 and 1982 as a result of the oil boom and concomitant high foreign revenue earnings. This paradox can be attributed partly to the concentration of the wealth and benefits derived from the oil boom in the hands of a few individuals and groups, which has exacerbated the problems associated with economic inequality. A nationwide survey of incomes reported to tax assessment and relief authorities in all
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the states, carried out under the auspices of the Federal Ministry of Labour and the Central Bank of Nigeria, was undertaken by Etim and Erontimi, who discovered that the poorest sixty percent of the sample received twenty-eight percent of the gross income reported, whereas the highest paid five percent received forty-one percent of the same (1975:300). In the circumstances, the nation’s crime problem and the preponderance of property crimes have been attributed partly to economic conditions and inequality (Kayode, 1983). The poor have not been solely responsible for the increase in property crimes; members of other social strata have participated also. For example, of the nation’s twelve state governors (eleven military or police officers and one civilian) removed from office after a coup headed by Murtala Mohammed in 1975, only two were not adjudged guilty of gross criminal appropriation of public funds or corrupt enrichment. A similar pattern of widespread corruption and criminal appropriation of public funds also has emerged in the reports of various judicial panels that probed the Second Republic (1979-83) civilian rulers. In 1967, there were 37,094 property crimes known to the police nationwide; this represented 66.3 percent of all crimes recorded in that year. However, by 1976, the number of property crimes reported to the police was 115,688, representing fifty-four percent’ of the crimes recorded for the year. Thus, over a ten-year period, an increase in the number of property crimes of about three hundred percent was recorded. The volume of property crimes known to the police for each year since 1976 has remained high and at about the same level. The magnitude of the nation’s crime problem and the increasing number of Nigerians seeking to acquire wealth and political and economic advantages by criminal means are occasionally acknowledged (even if for rhetorical purposes) by the nation’s leaders. Shagari, the Second Republic civilian president, in a speech on “Crime and the Nigerian society” delivered at the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies in October, 1983 observed that the nation was
“getting to a situation where crime is gradually taking care and control of the society instead of the opposite.” He stated further: I am also corruption, only being becoming a
dismayed to understand that fraud and smuggling are not institutionalized but are fast business pursuit in our coun-
try our country is gradually yielding to the pressures of crime and its perpetrators. Those who rise through criminal records to the position of affluence are embraced by the society while merit, honesty and integrity are hardly recognized. (Nigerian Standard, Nov. 1,1983: 11, emphasis added)
Ex-president Shagari is presumed to have presided over the most corrupt and fraudulent administration in the country since independence and, therefore, to have firsthand knowledge of the level, motives, and modality of elites’ involvement in property crimes. The nation’s crime problem has been further compounded by the emergence of a value system that emphasizes not only the acquisition but also the ostentatious display of wealth. Those who fulfill these expectations instantly acquire privileges and power irrespective of the sources of their wealth. This intensely materialistic value system has gradually replaced the former respect for excellence in diverse spheres, including crafts and the arts and military achievements, in pre-colonial African societies. The new value system precipitated an intense struggle for property accumulation through whatever means seemed to be expedient, including violent means. Armed (residential, office, and highway) robbery has been on the increase since the 197Os, despite the penalty of death by firing squad for this crime. The punishment has been administered regularly since it was instituted fifteen years ago. Though the relationship between the economic structure and emphasis on property accumulation and the preponderance of property crimes, including armed robbery, has not yet been precisely specified, a convincing case for the link can be made. Merton’s (1968) anomie theory supports the linkage even in the context of a developing capitalist economy such as Nigeria.
Socioeconomic
and Criminological
Attributes
Research on the influence of offenders’ demographic backgrounds on criminal justice dispositions has only begun (e.g. Alemika, 1985). A few general observations in the area have nonetheless been made. One example is Chambliss’s (1975) argument that: In at least Ibadan and Lagos gangs of professional thieves operated with impunity . . . one with money could pay to be excused from any type or amount of crime. Who, then did get arrested. In general those who lacked either the money or the political influence to fix a charge. (p. 171)
Linking the question of poverty and inequality to the administration of criminal justice in Nigeria, Udo-Aka (1975:260) noted that “It is extremely expensive to be poor. The administration of justice and police protection do not favor him.” A prominent Nigerian radical political economist, Gana (1985), also reported that the former Director of the National Youth Service Corps (N.Y.S.C.) Colonel P. Obasa, who was found guilty of corruptly enriching himself to the tune of W4 million* was sentenced to only 21 years in jail. However one Emmanuel Steven convicted of robbing his victim of MOO.000 was condemned to death by firing squad. Apart from the possibility of miscarriage of justice, it is certain that the former N.Y.S.C. director will not spend half of his jail term behind bars, given his class origin. The total number of armed robbery cases in Plateau State in 1984 was thirty (30) involving a meagre sum of W63,044.96. All of the convicts were condemned to death by firing squads. (P. 180)
Indeed, Gana’s prediction was fulfilled in July, 1986, when, along with several other state governors convicted of criminal appropriation, Col. Obasa had his jail sentence reduced from twenty-one to five years by the nation’s Armed Forces Ruling Council. The preceding analytical descriptions of some politicoeconomic and legal features of Nigeria provides background for the findings of this study.
of Convicts
in Two Nigerian Prisons
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METHOD The sample for the study consisted of 144 convicted prison inmates drawn from Bauchi and Jos Prisons in Nigeria. The data were collected in 1981. Forty-one percent (fiftynine) of the subjects were drawn from Bauchi Prison and comprised forty-two percent of all convicted inmates (123) in that prison when the sample was drawn. The remaining fiftynine percent (eighty-five) of the subjects were drawn from Jos Prison, out of an average daily convicted inmate population of 348. In both prisons, a systematic sampling procedure was employed, following pilot interviews conducted by two sociology undergraduate research assistants, one in each prison. Univariate and bivariate descriptive statistics and multiple regression were employed in the analysis of the data. The two prisons are located in two adjacent states in the northern part of the country. Most of the inmates had been convicted in the jurisdictions in which the prisons are located. Substantive and procedural criminal laws in the two jurisdictions are nearly identical. The criminal laws of various jurisdictions in Nigeria are very similar, given their colonial origins and concern for the consistency of the laws across the country. This study may be regarded as exploratory in a country where social science investigations of crime and legal justice phenomena are only beginning to emerge.
RESULTS Socioeconomic
Backgrounds
Fifty-four percent (seventy-eight) of the 144 inmates were in the 25-34 age category, 31.3 percent (forty-five) were twenty-four years old or younger, and the remaining 14.6 percent (twenty-one) were thirty-five years old or more. The mean and median ages for the sample were twenty-eight and twenty-seven years, respectively. Inmates convicted of property offenses were not
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significantly older than their counterparts convicted of offenses against the person. The mean and median ages were 28.3 and 27.0, respectively, for the property offender and 27.5 and 28.0, respectively, for the inmates convicted of crimes against the person. Inmates with prior record of incarceration also were not significantly older than their counterparts incarcerated for the first time. The mean and median ages were both 27.0 for the former and 29.6 and 27.0, respectively, for the latter. Educational attainment among the inmates was quite low. Of all the inmates, 41.7 percent (sixty) were illiterate (could not read or write in any language); 28.5 percent (forty-one) were only marginally literate, having attended or completed no more than primary school (six to seven years of schooling). Only 29.Y percent (forty-three) of the inmates had post-primary education. This pattern, however, does not appear to be different from what obtains among individuals of these ages in the larger population. However, the pattern of educational attainment of first offenders vis-a-vis recidivists is noteworthy. Of the first offenders, 30.1 percent were illiterate, 29.0 percent were barely literate, and the remaining 40.9 percent had some high school (secondary) education or above. Corresponding figures for the recidivists were 62.7 percent, 27.5 percent, and 9.8 percent, respectively. The difference was statistically significant (.a? = 19.1, d.f: = 2;p < .Ol). Income level was also quite low among the inmates. Seventy-three (50.7 percent) of the 144 convicts earned less than the statutory minimum wage (W125.00 per month)” in their last employment before incarceration. The corresponding figure for the remaining 49.3 percent (seventy-one) was not considerably higher than the minimum wage. The mean and median last preincarceration income levels in the sample were N150.00 and W120.00, respectively. The mean and median preincarceration monthly incomes for inmates without prior records were Bd154.1 and W 130.0. respectively. Corresponding figures for inmates with prior records were N 138.1 and N105.0, respectively. Among
inmates convicted of property crimes, the mean and median preincarceration income levels were W157.9 and BJ130.0, respectively. Corresponding figures for those convicted of crimes against the person were B1125.3 and W100.0, respectively. The patterns of educational attainment and income status among inmates in the present sample were consistent with Kratcoski and Scheuerman’s (1974) findings that convicts are drawn from politically, economically, and socially disadvantaged persons. The patterns also provide some measure of support for the radical and conflict criminological theoretical arguments that the prisons of social systems with considerable inequalities of political and economic opportunities will consist largely of persons without power and property. Patterns of Offense
Seriousness
Of all the inmates in the sample, 72.2 percent (104) were convicted of nonviolent property/economic crimes; 6.3 percent (nine) and 21.5 percent (thirty-one) were convicted of violent property/economic crimes and crimes against the person, respectively. This pattern is comparable to that observed by Alemika and Kayode (1981) in their study of socioeconomic and official criminal histories of Nigerian prison inmates. They found that 63.2 percent, 3.3 percent, and 27.3 percent were convicted of nonviolent property/economic crimes, violent property/economic crimes, and crimes against the person, respectively. The predominance of arrests and convictions of lower-class persons for property crimes led Alemika and Kayode to suggest that such crime “is probably an indication that a lot of (property) crimes are a means of procuring resources for persons to whom legitimate means are not accessible” (1981:190). Juvenile crimes in the nation’s capital have also been observed to be primarily related to property. Ebbe (1984) found that of 429 cases adjudicated by Lagos Juvenile court between January, 1977 and December, 1978, the percentage of property offenses was 90.4 (388). These findings support the relationship between a preponderance of
Socioeconomic
and Criminological
Attributes
property crimes in Nigeria and a cultural emphasis on property accumulation in the presence of (1) limited access to the means for such acquisition for lower- and workingclass persons and (2) the struggle for property accumulation among the privileged groups. The observed preponderance of property crimes in Nigerian prison statistics is consistent with similar observations in the United States of America (Clark, 1970) and Britain (Taylor, Walton, and Young, 1975), where no less than eighty percent of index crimes reported to the police in the 1960s and 1971, respectively have been property crimes. The U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics’s Source Book of Criminal Justice Statistics (1983:370) shows that in 1980 and 1981 the numbers of index crimes reported to the police were 13,295,400 and 13,290,300, respectively. The numbers of property crimes (excluding robbery) were 11,986,500 (90.2 percent) and 11,968,400 (90.1 percent) for 1980 and 1981, respectively. These figures, like those of Nigeria, illustrate the importance of property in illegal activities in both developed and developing capitalist economies. Sixty-eight percent of the inmates committed their crimes alone; the remaining thirtytwo percent had one or more coconspirators. This indicates that criminality among the lower-SES persons (from among whom the prison population is largely constituted) in Nigeria remains primarily an individual rather than a “corporate or joint stock” criminal enterprise. Sixty-five percent (ninety-three) of the 144 inmates were first offenders, and the remaining thirty-five percent (fifty-one) were recidivists with one or more prior convictions. This pattern is similar to that observed for the nation’s prison population. The Nigerian Prisons Service Annual Report (1981:20) indicates that 68.9 percent of the convicted inmates in the country’s prisons that year were first offenders. In the present study, of the 113 persons convicted of property crimes, 62.8 percent (seventy-one) were first offenders, and the remaining 37.2 percent (fortytwo) were recidivists. Corresponding figures for those convicted of crimes against the
of Convicts
in Two Nigerian
Prisons
203
person were 77.4 percent (twenty-four) and 23.5 percent (seven), respectively. This pattern indicates a greater proportion of recidivists among property offenders than among inmates convicted for crimes against the person. Factors Related to Length of Sentence A multiple regression analysis was undertaken to determine the extent to which income level, age, extent of prior criminal convictions, presence of accomplice(s), and type of crime (violent property crimes, crimes against the person, and nonviolent property crimes) were related to sentence lengths. Age and income at the last preincarceration employment were significantly related to length of prison sentence after prior conviction record, crime types, and presence of accomplice(s) were controlled (Table 1). Age was positively related to sentence length and preincarceration income level was inversely related. Thus, older convicts and persons in lower income levels were mbre likely to receive longer prison sentences. The lengths of prison sentences received by individuals convicted for various types of crime (violent property crimes, crimes against the person except murder and manslaughter, and nonviolent property crimes) were examined. In the regression model, the three categories of crime were represented as dummy variables with nonviolent property crimes as the base or comparison category. The results (Table 1) show that individuals convicted of violent property crimes tended to receive longer prison sentences than those convicted of nonviolent property crimes. Prison sentences were not significantly longer for individuals convicted for crimes against the person than for those convicted of nonviolent property crimes. Presence of an accomplice failed to show a significant relationship with length of prison sentence (Table 1). When the relationship between prior criminal record and length of prison sentence was examined, a puzzling pattern was discovered (Table 1).
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‘MOLU ALEMIKA
TABLE 1 ANALYSES OF FACTORS RELATED TO LENGTH OF PRBON SENTENCE
Independent Variables
Age Number of previous convictions Income at last preincarceration employment Property crimes with no violence” Property crimes with violence Crimes against the person Number of contemporaneously tried accomplices Constant
Unstandardized Coefficient 4.298 - 17.991 -0.101 -
Standardized Coefficient ,411 -.317 -.163
T-value 5.26 -3.84 -2.174
-
58.014 0.529 15.711 -28.716
.183 .003 .094 -
Significance .ooo .000 .031 -
2.102 0.037 1.273 -1.149
.037 .970 .205 .253
NOTES: “This is the base or comparison category for the dummy variables created to represent types of crime (i.e., property crimes with no violence, crimes against the person, and property crimes with violence). Multiple R? = ,525 R, = ,275 Adjusted R = ,243
Prior criminal record was inversely related to sentence length, after age, preincarceration income level, type of crime, and presence of accomplices were controlled. These results would not be surprising if the severity of crimes decreased with the length of the criminal career. Unfortunately, data allowing the mapping of an individual offender’s criminal career are not available. Nigeria has no meaningful and systematic criminal data archive in any of its criminal justice subsystems. Information collected about a particular offender is kept in a folder and generally remains in the local agency. Therefore, except for very serious crimes, it is possible to accumulate convictions in different local judicial jurisdictions without these records becoming available to agencies outside the jurisdictions where convictions were earned. The inverse relationship observed between prior record and sentence length may be due to unavailability to the judges of reliable information about offenders’ prior convictions (especially since the country has no institutionalized presentencing investigation procedure).
The patterns observed with respect to factors affecting length of sentence deserve more thorough examination in future investigations than they received in the present exploratory analysis. More specifically, relative severity of crime rather than type of crime should be considered in future investigations. This study did not incorporate this measure, nor did it consider the problem of selection bias that may have resulted from decisions made at previous stages of criminal justice processing and how that bias may have diminished the explanatory power of pertinent variables. Its principal objective was to map out in an exploratory manner patterns in (1) the attributes of persons adjudged criminal and (2) sentencing severity. Given the paucity of social science research on the criminal justice process in Nigeria, such mapping is essential as a basis for further in-depth theoretical and empirical sociolegal studies. The analytical description of sociolegal correlates of prison sentence lengths in Nigeria presented here, though sensitized by radical theoretical propositions about law enforcement, does not
Socioeconomic
and Criminological
Attributes
constitute an empirical test of the propositions. Nonetheless, the findings (which must be interpreted with caution since sentencing is an end-state in a series of decisions with possible selection-bias and error in estimation) indicate that at least in a general way the nature of offenses and the socioeconomic characteristics of defendants affect the length of sentences imposed on them by the courts in Nigeria.
SUMMARY
AND
of Convicts
Prisons
205
their resources to protecting private property and associated rights. Consequently, the operation of the legal system in those societies generally supports the interests of those with property. It is in this context that the twin phenomena of overrepresentation of property crimes and of the working class and the poor in general in both the criminal statistics and penal institutions of capitalist societies can be comprehended.
DISCUSSION
The results of this investigation demonstrate that the inmates in two Nigerian prisons studied were drawn from the young, poorly educated, and politically and economically disadvantaged groups. It was also found that nearly eighty percent of the inmates were convicted of property crimes. This pattern has been known to be characteristic of more developed capitalist economies in general (Hirst, 1975), particularly Great Britain (Taylor, Walton, and Young, 1975; Box, 1983) and the United States (Barlow, 1978; Clark, 1970). The lengths of prison sentences imposed on the adjudicated criminals were found to be significantly affected by the type of crime, age, preincarceration income level, and prior criminal record. Older convicts, those convicted of violent property crimes, and lower-income earners tended to receive longer prison sentences. Convicts with prior conviction records were more likely to receive shorter sentences. Societies employ the legal process to resolve various types of conflict and to control certain behavioral patterns. The composition and seriousness of events represented as crimes as well as the nature and severity of criminal justice system reactions to persons accused and convicted of law-violative behaviors vary across societies. In societies that stress the value of private property, such as capitalist societies, the major conflicts are about wealth or property and frequently occur between those with property and those without it. The governments in these societies devote the greater part of
in Two Nigerian
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT This research was supported by a grant from the University of Jos, Faculty of Social Science Research Committee. I wish to thank Professor A.T. Gana and an anonymous reviewer for the Journal of Criminal Justice for their comments on an earlier draft of this paper.
NOTES
1 In the statistics on crime published
annually by the Nigeria Police Force, all crimes are classified into four broad categories. These are offenses against person, property, local acts, and public order or morality. The proportion of property crime in the overall crime statistics for 1967 was 54.0 percent, which is below the 66.3 percent recorded in 1967. Nonetheless, of the four crime categories, property crime remains numerically the most dominant, contributing the highest proportion to the overall criminal statistics in the country.
* Col. Obasa was, in fact, convicted for misappropriation of 7 million Naira and not the 4 million Naira reported here. According to Professor Gana, the error must have occurred at the manuscript handling and processing stages. 3 A Nigerian Naira exchanged for $1.60 in August 1982 and $1.00 in the first Quarter of 1986. However, with the adverse economic situation in the country and the implementation of the IMF-World Bank Structural Adjustment Programme, since September 1986 the ‘value’ of a Naira now fluctuates within the $0.22-$0.30 range.
REFERENCES Alemika, E. E. (1985). Nonviolent property crimes in Nigeria: Prosecution, adjudication, and dispositions Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. Alemika, E.E.O. (1983). The smoke screen, rhetoric and reality of penal incarceration in Nigeria. International Journal of Comparative and Applied Criminal Justice 7: 137-49. Alemika, predictors
E.O., and Kayode, 0. (1981). Some of recidivism: A study of the inmates of a
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Nigerian prison. International Journal of Comparative and Applied Criminal Justice 5: 187-95. Barlow, Boston:
H.D. (1978). Little, Brown.
Introduction
Box, S. (1983). Power, crime, London: Tavistock Publications.
to criminology.
and mystification.
Chambliss, W.J. (1975). The political economy of crime: A comparative study of Nigeria and the U.S.A. In Critical criminology, ed. I. Taylor, P. Walton, and J. Young, 167-79. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul Clark, R. (1970). Crime in America. Simon and Schuster.
New York:
Ebbe, O.N.I. (1984). Ecological distribution of juvenile delinquency in metropolitan Lagos. International Journal of Comparative and Applied Criminal Justice. 8: 187-97. Ekeh, P.P. (1980). Colonialism and social structure. An innaugural lecture delivered at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, on June 5,198O. Etim, B.A., and Erontimi, F.N. (1975). Personal income distribution in Nigeria. In Poverty in Nigeria. Proceedings of the 1975 Annual Conference of the Nigerian Economic Society. Ibadan: Nigerian Economic Society. Gana, A.T. (1985). On the political economy of crime in Nigeria: Social polarisation in peripheral capitalism. Nigerian Journal of Political Science. 4 (I &II): 172-84. Hirst, P.Q. (1975). Marx and Engels on law, crime and morality. In Critical criminology, ed. I. Taylor,
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P. Walton, and J. Young, ledge and Kegan Paul.
203-232.
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Kayode, 0. (1983). Nigeria. In International handbook of contemporary developments in criminology, Vol. 2, ed. E. M. Johnson. Westport, CN: Greenwood Press. Kratcoski, P.C., and Scheuerman, K. (1974). Incarcerated male and female offenders’ perception of their experiences in the criminal justice system. J Crim Just 2: 73-78. Matza, D. (1964). Delinquency and drift. New York: John Wiley & Sons. Merton, R.K. (1968). Social theory and social structure. New York: Free Press. Milner, A. (1972). The Nigerian penal system. London: Sweet and Maxwell. Nigerian Prisons Service Annual Report, 1981. Lagos: Nigerian Prisons Service. Ryan, W. (1976). Vintage Books.
Blaming the victim. New York:
Taylor, I.; Walton, P.; and Young, J. eds. (1975). Critical criminology. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. Udo-Aka, U. (1975). Some issues in personal income distribution in Nigeria. In Poverty in Nigeria. Proceedings of the 1975 Annual Conference of the Nigerian Economic Society. Ibadan: Nigerian Economic Society.
0047-2352188 $3.00 + .OO Copyright 01988 Pergamon Press plc
Justice Vol. 16, pp. 197-206 (1988) All rights reserved. Printed in U.S.A.
SOCIOECONOMIC AND CRIMINOLOGICAL ATTRIBUTES OF CONVICTS IN TWO NIGERIAN PRISONS
ETANNIBI
‘MOLU ALEMIKA
Department of Sociology University of Jos Private Mail Bag 2084 Jos, Nigeria
ABSTRACT This article examines the socioeconomic backgrounds, patterns of offense seriousness, and sociolegal correlates of length of prison sentence of a sample of convicts in two Nigerian prisons. Presentation of the empirical analysis is preceded by an outline of Nigeria’s socioeconomic and politicolegal structures to provide a systemic appraisal of the nation’s crime and penological features. The results of the investigation show that the inmate population is drawn from the young, poorly educated, and politically and economically disadvantaged groups. The lengths of prison sentences imposed on the convicts were found to be related to type of crime, age, preincarceration income level, and prior record. Older convicts, those convicted of violent property crimes, and lower- income earners generally received longer prison sentences. Paradoxically, convicts with prior conviction records generally received shorter prison sentences.
lance, and imprisonment. This knowledge may also lead to an appreciation of a nation’s crime problem in relation to its sociopolitical and economic structure. This article examines the socioeconomic and criminological backgrounds of a sample of convicts in two Nigerian prisons. An analysis of (1) the pattern of offense seriousness among the inmates and (2) the sociolegal correlates of the lengths of their sentences is presented. To show how societal factors determine which socioeconomic groups are processed through the criminal justice system and how they are treated, the relevant features of Nigeria’s political, socioeconomic, and legal structures are discussed.
INTRODUCTION The socioeconomic characteristics of prison inmates, the patterns of offense seriousness among convicts, and patterns of criminal justice dispositional outcomes reveal much about the sociopolitical, economic, and legal structures of a society. Therefore, the types of crimes for which inmates are incarcerated, their socioeconomic backgrounds, and the sociolegal correlates of the lengths of their sentences provide considerable insights into (1) the character of the society’s laws, (2) the types of conduct most subject to control by criminal law enforcement, and (3) the groups who are most vulnerable to criminality, legal surveil197
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Colonial
Background
‘MOLU ALEMIKA
of the Legal System
Nigeria’s evolution as a nation-state occurred during the century long (1861-1960) British colonial domination and exploitation of the various communities that existed within the geopolitical space it now occupies. Contact between these communities and the Euro-Americans predated formal colonialism. Although the effects of abductions of Africans as slaves by Euro-Americans continue to be felt, it was the British colonial administration that foisted a state structure on the area’s more than two hundred relatively autonomous political and linguistic groups. Colonial domination and exploitation of Nigeria was motivated by the needs of England’s developing capitalist economythe need for cheap raw materials and a monopoly on market outlets for the products of British industry. Thus, colonialism precipitated the emergence of a capitalist economy and corresponding political and legal structures in Nigeria. As Professor Ekeh (1980:3) has said, the colonialization of Africa was intended to create new economic structures and opportunities receptive to the expansion of European capitalism.
In consequence, The moral and social order which formally encased the precolonial indigenous institutions is burst by the social focus of colonialism and they seek new anchors in the changed milieux of colonialism (1980: 17) and post-colonial Nigeria. The English legal system was introduced in Nigeria by the colonial administration after the military invasion and conquest of Lagos, the violent dethroning of King Kosoko of Lagos in 18.51, and the establishment of the colony in 1861. Subsequently, Ordinance Number 3 of 1863 was enacted. Sections 1 and 2 of the ordinance provided that all laws and statutes applicable in England as of January 1, 1863 would become applicable in the colony of Lagos beginning March 4, 1863. This enabling ordinance was revised and reenacted as often as new territo-
ries were acquired or annexed during the colonial era. The first British-type prison was established by the colonial authority in 1872 and was located on the Broad street in Lagos. The first English-type police force was cstablished in 1861, when the British consul in Lagos was authorized to form a consular Guard with an initial strength of thirty men. Before the end of the nineteenth century, several police forces with both civil and military functions had emerged in different parts of what became, in the 1914 amalgamation, the Colony and Protectorates of Nigeria. There was a two-tiered police force system (the federal Nigeria Police Force, established in 1930, and local government forces) until 1967. when recommendation for the integration and centralization of the various forces under the Nigeria Police Force was made and implemented by the federal government. Today the Nigeria Police Force is the only policing authority in the country, with a strength of more than 100,000 men and women. The nation also operates a centralized prison system, which presently consists of 121 prisons and 228 lock-ups. The court system, however, is divided into local. state, and federal jurisdictions. The nation’s legal and criminal justice systems and the statutory bases for their existence have undergone little substantive change or reform since the British relinquished formal political domination in 1960 (Alemika, 1983). Since independence, the economic and legal structures bequeathed by the British colonialists have continued. Nigeria’s legal and criminal justice systems emphasize intense enforcement against conventional ‘street’ property crimes. This orientation is a continuation of the colonial penal heritage. For example, Lugard, the most influential colonial governor, under whose leadership Nigeria emerged as a country in 1914, advised his political officials that the form of the punishment inflicted must be that which is most deterrent and most likely to suppress crime. Native courts must be instructed that the restitution of stolen property or of an abducted person is
Socioeconomic
and Criminological
not of itself a sufficient penalty. (quoted Milner, 1972:92, emphasis added)
Attributes
in
The traditional African restitutive, arbitrative, and conciliatory modes of dispute resolution (which some western societies have begun in recent years to regard as possible models to use in reforming their legal systems) were judged inadequate for the colonial situation. In his extensive study of the criminal justice administration in colonial and post-colonial Nigeria, Milner (1972) observed that Imprisonment is heavily used for stealing and associated offenses, presumably on the basis that these are the offenses which have caused so much concern in recent years and so are dealt with severely with the intention of deterring . (p. 96, emphasis added) Milner summed up his observation of the penal scene in colonial and post-colonial Nigeria as follows: If it is possible to generalize about the basic attitudes displayed in the application of the British-type criminal law by the introduced courts, one may say that they are repressive and oriented towards deterrence. (1972:268) Because the British colonial occupation was aimed toward fulfilling England’s economic needs, the legal system imposed on the Nigerian people emphasized maintenance of the ruling power’s property interests. Furthermore, because the relationship was one of domination and exploitation, it could only be maintained by repressive laws and a punitive correctional system. This heritage continues to haunt the Nigerian legal and criminal justice systems and inhibit the development of alternativecorrectional-rehabilitative systems. Colonialism
and Economic
Development
Colonialism precipitated regional imbalances in economic development and especially a disparity between urban and rural areas. Colonial administrators and merchants gave primary attention to those regions with the greatest potential for pro-
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Prisons
ducing primary products required for British industries. The lopsided focus on cities (many of which were created by the colonialists, for examples, Lagos, Jos, Ibadan, Port Harcourt, etc.) by both colonial and post-colonial governments resulted in mass rural-urban migration. The unskilled and uneducated or barely educated youths, who were ill-prepared for employment in the modern sector, comprise the largest number of migrants to the urban centers. A very significant proportion of them have exchanged rural boredom and insufficiency for misery, poverty, and homelessness in the city. Regional imbalance and rural-urban migration, together with slow or stagnant economic growth (and sometimes actual shrinkage of opportunities) under a condition of high population growth, has created a large pool of unemployed, poor, and aggrieved youths in Nigerian cities. If the nation’s wealth were distributed more equitably or if the burdens of the market economy on lowincome earners were ameliorated through welfare programs to fulfill needs for food, housing, education, and health, perhaps the scourge of poverty could be reduced. But this has not been done. It is against this background that Nigeria’s crime problem must be understood. The Crime Problem
in Modern
Nigeria
The nation’s crime problem has deepened in the last fifteen years. Paradoxically, the accelerated criminal activity, especially in property crime, has coincided with the substantial economic growth and prosperity witnessed by the country between 1970 and 1982 as a result of the oil boom and concomitant high foreign revenue earnings. This paradox can be attributed partly to the concentration of the wealth and benefits derived from the oil boom in the hands of a few individuals and groups, which has exacerbated the problems associated with economic inequality. A nationwide survey of incomes reported to tax assessment and relief authorities in all
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the states, carried out under the auspices of the Federal Ministry of Labour and the Central Bank of Nigeria, was undertaken by Etim and Erontimi, who discovered that the poorest sixty percent of the sample received twenty-eight percent of the gross income reported, whereas the highest paid five percent received forty-one percent of the same (1975:300). In the circumstances, the nation’s crime problem and the preponderance of property crimes have been attributed partly to economic conditions and inequality (Kayode, 1983). The poor have not been solely responsible for the increase in property crimes; members of other social strata have participated also. For example, of the nation’s twelve state governors (eleven military or police officers and one civilian) removed from office after a coup headed by Murtala Mohammed in 1975, only two were not adjudged guilty of gross criminal appropriation of public funds or corrupt enrichment. A similar pattern of widespread corruption and criminal appropriation of public funds also has emerged in the reports of various judicial panels that probed the Second Republic (1979-83) civilian rulers. In 1967, there were 37,094 property crimes known to the police nationwide; this represented 66.3 percent of all crimes recorded in that year. However, by 1976, the number of property crimes reported to the police was 115,688, representing fifty-four percent’ of the crimes recorded for the year. Thus, over a ten-year period, an increase in the number of property crimes of about three hundred percent was recorded. The volume of property crimes known to the police for each year since 1976 has remained high and at about the same level. The magnitude of the nation’s crime problem and the increasing number of Nigerians seeking to acquire wealth and political and economic advantages by criminal means are occasionally acknowledged (even if for rhetorical purposes) by the nation’s leaders. Shagari, the Second Republic civilian president, in a speech on “Crime and the Nigerian society” delivered at the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies in October, 1983 observed that the nation was
“getting to a situation where crime is gradually taking care and control of the society instead of the opposite.” He stated further: I am also corruption, only being becoming a
dismayed to understand that fraud and smuggling are not institutionalized but are fast business pursuit in our coun-
try our country is gradually yielding to the pressures of crime and its perpetrators. Those who rise through criminal records to the position of affluence are embraced by the society while merit, honesty and integrity are hardly recognized. (Nigerian Standard, Nov. 1,1983: 11, emphasis added)
Ex-president Shagari is presumed to have presided over the most corrupt and fraudulent administration in the country since independence and, therefore, to have firsthand knowledge of the level, motives, and modality of elites’ involvement in property crimes. The nation’s crime problem has been further compounded by the emergence of a value system that emphasizes not only the acquisition but also the ostentatious display of wealth. Those who fulfill these expectations instantly acquire privileges and power irrespective of the sources of their wealth. This intensely materialistic value system has gradually replaced the former respect for excellence in diverse spheres, including crafts and the arts and military achievements, in pre-colonial African societies. The new value system precipitated an intense struggle for property accumulation through whatever means seemed to be expedient, including violent means. Armed (residential, office, and highway) robbery has been on the increase since the 197Os, despite the penalty of death by firing squad for this crime. The punishment has been administered regularly since it was instituted fifteen years ago. Though the relationship between the economic structure and emphasis on property accumulation and the preponderance of property crimes, including armed robbery, has not yet been precisely specified, a convincing case for the link can be made. Merton’s (1968) anomie theory supports the linkage even in the context of a developing capitalist economy such as Nigeria.
Socioeconomic
and Criminological
Attributes
Research on the influence of offenders’ demographic backgrounds on criminal justice dispositions has only begun (e.g. Alemika, 1985). A few general observations in the area have nonetheless been made. One example is Chambliss’s (1975) argument that: In at least Ibadan and Lagos gangs of professional thieves operated with impunity . . . one with money could pay to be excused from any type or amount of crime. Who, then did get arrested. In general those who lacked either the money or the political influence to fix a charge. (p. 171)
Linking the question of poverty and inequality to the administration of criminal justice in Nigeria, Udo-Aka (1975:260) noted that “It is extremely expensive to be poor. The administration of justice and police protection do not favor him.” A prominent Nigerian radical political economist, Gana (1985), also reported that the former Director of the National Youth Service Corps (N.Y.S.C.) Colonel P. Obasa, who was found guilty of corruptly enriching himself to the tune of W4 million* was sentenced to only 21 years in jail. However one Emmanuel Steven convicted of robbing his victim of MOO.000 was condemned to death by firing squad. Apart from the possibility of miscarriage of justice, it is certain that the former N.Y.S.C. director will not spend half of his jail term behind bars, given his class origin. The total number of armed robbery cases in Plateau State in 1984 was thirty (30) involving a meagre sum of W63,044.96. All of the convicts were condemned to death by firing squads. (P. 180)
Indeed, Gana’s prediction was fulfilled in July, 1986, when, along with several other state governors convicted of criminal appropriation, Col. Obasa had his jail sentence reduced from twenty-one to five years by the nation’s Armed Forces Ruling Council. The preceding analytical descriptions of some politicoeconomic and legal features of Nigeria provides background for the findings of this study.
of Convicts
in Two Nigerian Prisons
201
METHOD The sample for the study consisted of 144 convicted prison inmates drawn from Bauchi and Jos Prisons in Nigeria. The data were collected in 1981. Forty-one percent (fiftynine) of the subjects were drawn from Bauchi Prison and comprised forty-two percent of all convicted inmates (123) in that prison when the sample was drawn. The remaining fiftynine percent (eighty-five) of the subjects were drawn from Jos Prison, out of an average daily convicted inmate population of 348. In both prisons, a systematic sampling procedure was employed, following pilot interviews conducted by two sociology undergraduate research assistants, one in each prison. Univariate and bivariate descriptive statistics and multiple regression were employed in the analysis of the data. The two prisons are located in two adjacent states in the northern part of the country. Most of the inmates had been convicted in the jurisdictions in which the prisons are located. Substantive and procedural criminal laws in the two jurisdictions are nearly identical. The criminal laws of various jurisdictions in Nigeria are very similar, given their colonial origins and concern for the consistency of the laws across the country. This study may be regarded as exploratory in a country where social science investigations of crime and legal justice phenomena are only beginning to emerge.
RESULTS Socioeconomic
Backgrounds
Fifty-four percent (seventy-eight) of the 144 inmates were in the 25-34 age category, 31.3 percent (forty-five) were twenty-four years old or younger, and the remaining 14.6 percent (twenty-one) were thirty-five years old or more. The mean and median ages for the sample were twenty-eight and twenty-seven years, respectively. Inmates convicted of property offenses were not
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significantly older than their counterparts convicted of offenses against the person. The mean and median ages were 28.3 and 27.0, respectively, for the property offender and 27.5 and 28.0, respectively, for the inmates convicted of crimes against the person. Inmates with prior record of incarceration also were not significantly older than their counterparts incarcerated for the first time. The mean and median ages were both 27.0 for the former and 29.6 and 27.0, respectively, for the latter. Educational attainment among the inmates was quite low. Of all the inmates, 41.7 percent (sixty) were illiterate (could not read or write in any language); 28.5 percent (forty-one) were only marginally literate, having attended or completed no more than primary school (six to seven years of schooling). Only 29.Y percent (forty-three) of the inmates had post-primary education. This pattern, however, does not appear to be different from what obtains among individuals of these ages in the larger population. However, the pattern of educational attainment of first offenders vis-a-vis recidivists is noteworthy. Of the first offenders, 30.1 percent were illiterate, 29.0 percent were barely literate, and the remaining 40.9 percent had some high school (secondary) education or above. Corresponding figures for the recidivists were 62.7 percent, 27.5 percent, and 9.8 percent, respectively. The difference was statistically significant (.a? = 19.1, d.f: = 2;p < .Ol). Income level was also quite low among the inmates. Seventy-three (50.7 percent) of the 144 convicts earned less than the statutory minimum wage (W125.00 per month)” in their last employment before incarceration. The corresponding figure for the remaining 49.3 percent (seventy-one) was not considerably higher than the minimum wage. The mean and median last preincarceration income levels in the sample were N150.00 and W120.00, respectively. The mean and median preincarceration monthly incomes for inmates without prior records were Bd154.1 and W 130.0. respectively. Corresponding figures for inmates with prior records were N 138.1 and N105.0, respectively. Among
inmates convicted of property crimes, the mean and median preincarceration income levels were W157.9 and BJ130.0, respectively. Corresponding figures for those convicted of crimes against the person were B1125.3 and W100.0, respectively. The patterns of educational attainment and income status among inmates in the present sample were consistent with Kratcoski and Scheuerman’s (1974) findings that convicts are drawn from politically, economically, and socially disadvantaged persons. The patterns also provide some measure of support for the radical and conflict criminological theoretical arguments that the prisons of social systems with considerable inequalities of political and economic opportunities will consist largely of persons without power and property. Patterns of Offense
Seriousness
Of all the inmates in the sample, 72.2 percent (104) were convicted of nonviolent property/economic crimes; 6.3 percent (nine) and 21.5 percent (thirty-one) were convicted of violent property/economic crimes and crimes against the person, respectively. This pattern is comparable to that observed by Alemika and Kayode (1981) in their study of socioeconomic and official criminal histories of Nigerian prison inmates. They found that 63.2 percent, 3.3 percent, and 27.3 percent were convicted of nonviolent property/economic crimes, violent property/economic crimes, and crimes against the person, respectively. The predominance of arrests and convictions of lower-class persons for property crimes led Alemika and Kayode to suggest that such crime “is probably an indication that a lot of (property) crimes are a means of procuring resources for persons to whom legitimate means are not accessible” (1981:190). Juvenile crimes in the nation’s capital have also been observed to be primarily related to property. Ebbe (1984) found that of 429 cases adjudicated by Lagos Juvenile court between January, 1977 and December, 1978, the percentage of property offenses was 90.4 (388). These findings support the relationship between a preponderance of
Socioeconomic
and Criminological
Attributes
property crimes in Nigeria and a cultural emphasis on property accumulation in the presence of (1) limited access to the means for such acquisition for lower- and workingclass persons and (2) the struggle for property accumulation among the privileged groups. The observed preponderance of property crimes in Nigerian prison statistics is consistent with similar observations in the United States of America (Clark, 1970) and Britain (Taylor, Walton, and Young, 1975), where no less than eighty percent of index crimes reported to the police in the 1960s and 1971, respectively have been property crimes. The U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics’s Source Book of Criminal Justice Statistics (1983:370) shows that in 1980 and 1981 the numbers of index crimes reported to the police were 13,295,400 and 13,290,300, respectively. The numbers of property crimes (excluding robbery) were 11,986,500 (90.2 percent) and 11,968,400 (90.1 percent) for 1980 and 1981, respectively. These figures, like those of Nigeria, illustrate the importance of property in illegal activities in both developed and developing capitalist economies. Sixty-eight percent of the inmates committed their crimes alone; the remaining thirtytwo percent had one or more coconspirators. This indicates that criminality among the lower-SES persons (from among whom the prison population is largely constituted) in Nigeria remains primarily an individual rather than a “corporate or joint stock” criminal enterprise. Sixty-five percent (ninety-three) of the 144 inmates were first offenders, and the remaining thirty-five percent (fifty-one) were recidivists with one or more prior convictions. This pattern is similar to that observed for the nation’s prison population. The Nigerian Prisons Service Annual Report (1981:20) indicates that 68.9 percent of the convicted inmates in the country’s prisons that year were first offenders. In the present study, of the 113 persons convicted of property crimes, 62.8 percent (seventy-one) were first offenders, and the remaining 37.2 percent (fortytwo) were recidivists. Corresponding figures for those convicted of crimes against the
of Convicts
in Two Nigerian
Prisons
203
person were 77.4 percent (twenty-four) and 23.5 percent (seven), respectively. This pattern indicates a greater proportion of recidivists among property offenders than among inmates convicted for crimes against the person. Factors Related to Length of Sentence A multiple regression analysis was undertaken to determine the extent to which income level, age, extent of prior criminal convictions, presence of accomplice(s), and type of crime (violent property crimes, crimes against the person, and nonviolent property crimes) were related to sentence lengths. Age and income at the last preincarceration employment were significantly related to length of prison sentence after prior conviction record, crime types, and presence of accomplice(s) were controlled (Table 1). Age was positively related to sentence length and preincarceration income level was inversely related. Thus, older convicts and persons in lower income levels were mbre likely to receive longer prison sentences. The lengths of prison sentences received by individuals convicted for various types of crime (violent property crimes, crimes against the person except murder and manslaughter, and nonviolent property crimes) were examined. In the regression model, the three categories of crime were represented as dummy variables with nonviolent property crimes as the base or comparison category. The results (Table 1) show that individuals convicted of violent property crimes tended to receive longer prison sentences than those convicted of nonviolent property crimes. Prison sentences were not significantly longer for individuals convicted for crimes against the person than for those convicted of nonviolent property crimes. Presence of an accomplice failed to show a significant relationship with length of prison sentence (Table 1). When the relationship between prior criminal record and length of prison sentence was examined, a puzzling pattern was discovered (Table 1).
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‘MOLU ALEMIKA
TABLE 1 ANALYSES OF FACTORS RELATED TO LENGTH OF PRBON SENTENCE
Independent Variables
Age Number of previous convictions Income at last preincarceration employment Property crimes with no violence” Property crimes with violence Crimes against the person Number of contemporaneously tried accomplices Constant
Unstandardized Coefficient 4.298 - 17.991 -0.101 -
Standardized Coefficient ,411 -.317 -.163
T-value 5.26 -3.84 -2.174
-
58.014 0.529 15.711 -28.716
.183 .003 .094 -
Significance .ooo .000 .031 -
2.102 0.037 1.273 -1.149
.037 .970 .205 .253
NOTES: “This is the base or comparison category for the dummy variables created to represent types of crime (i.e., property crimes with no violence, crimes against the person, and property crimes with violence). Multiple R? = ,525 R, = ,275 Adjusted R = ,243
Prior criminal record was inversely related to sentence length, after age, preincarceration income level, type of crime, and presence of accomplices were controlled. These results would not be surprising if the severity of crimes decreased with the length of the criminal career. Unfortunately, data allowing the mapping of an individual offender’s criminal career are not available. Nigeria has no meaningful and systematic criminal data archive in any of its criminal justice subsystems. Information collected about a particular offender is kept in a folder and generally remains in the local agency. Therefore, except for very serious crimes, it is possible to accumulate convictions in different local judicial jurisdictions without these records becoming available to agencies outside the jurisdictions where convictions were earned. The inverse relationship observed between prior record and sentence length may be due to unavailability to the judges of reliable information about offenders’ prior convictions (especially since the country has no institutionalized presentencing investigation procedure).
The patterns observed with respect to factors affecting length of sentence deserve more thorough examination in future investigations than they received in the present exploratory analysis. More specifically, relative severity of crime rather than type of crime should be considered in future investigations. This study did not incorporate this measure, nor did it consider the problem of selection bias that may have resulted from decisions made at previous stages of criminal justice processing and how that bias may have diminished the explanatory power of pertinent variables. Its principal objective was to map out in an exploratory manner patterns in (1) the attributes of persons adjudged criminal and (2) sentencing severity. Given the paucity of social science research on the criminal justice process in Nigeria, such mapping is essential as a basis for further in-depth theoretical and empirical sociolegal studies. The analytical description of sociolegal correlates of prison sentence lengths in Nigeria presented here, though sensitized by radical theoretical propositions about law enforcement, does not
Socioeconomic
and Criminological
Attributes
constitute an empirical test of the propositions. Nonetheless, the findings (which must be interpreted with caution since sentencing is an end-state in a series of decisions with possible selection-bias and error in estimation) indicate that at least in a general way the nature of offenses and the socioeconomic characteristics of defendants affect the length of sentences imposed on them by the courts in Nigeria.
SUMMARY
AND
of Convicts
Prisons
205
their resources to protecting private property and associated rights. Consequently, the operation of the legal system in those societies generally supports the interests of those with property. It is in this context that the twin phenomena of overrepresentation of property crimes and of the working class and the poor in general in both the criminal statistics and penal institutions of capitalist societies can be comprehended.
DISCUSSION
The results of this investigation demonstrate that the inmates in two Nigerian prisons studied were drawn from the young, poorly educated, and politically and economically disadvantaged groups. It was also found that nearly eighty percent of the inmates were convicted of property crimes. This pattern has been known to be characteristic of more developed capitalist economies in general (Hirst, 1975), particularly Great Britain (Taylor, Walton, and Young, 1975; Box, 1983) and the United States (Barlow, 1978; Clark, 1970). The lengths of prison sentences imposed on the adjudicated criminals were found to be significantly affected by the type of crime, age, preincarceration income level, and prior criminal record. Older convicts, those convicted of violent property crimes, and lower-income earners tended to receive longer prison sentences. Convicts with prior conviction records were more likely to receive shorter sentences. Societies employ the legal process to resolve various types of conflict and to control certain behavioral patterns. The composition and seriousness of events represented as crimes as well as the nature and severity of criminal justice system reactions to persons accused and convicted of law-violative behaviors vary across societies. In societies that stress the value of private property, such as capitalist societies, the major conflicts are about wealth or property and frequently occur between those with property and those without it. The governments in these societies devote the greater part of
in Two Nigerian
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT This research was supported by a grant from the University of Jos, Faculty of Social Science Research Committee. I wish to thank Professor A.T. Gana and an anonymous reviewer for the Journal of Criminal Justice for their comments on an earlier draft of this paper.
NOTES
1 In the statistics on crime published
annually by the Nigeria Police Force, all crimes are classified into four broad categories. These are offenses against person, property, local acts, and public order or morality. The proportion of property crime in the overall crime statistics for 1967 was 54.0 percent, which is below the 66.3 percent recorded in 1967. Nonetheless, of the four crime categories, property crime remains numerically the most dominant, contributing the highest proportion to the overall criminal statistics in the country.
* Col. Obasa was, in fact, convicted for misappropriation of 7 million Naira and not the 4 million Naira reported here. According to Professor Gana, the error must have occurred at the manuscript handling and processing stages. 3 A Nigerian Naira exchanged for $1.60 in August 1982 and $1.00 in the first Quarter of 1986. However, with the adverse economic situation in the country and the implementation of the IMF-World Bank Structural Adjustment Programme, since September 1986 the ‘value’ of a Naira now fluctuates within the $0.22-$0.30 range.
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