Juvenile Deliquency in Ibadan, Nigeria
JUVENILE DELIQUENCY IN IBADAN, NIGERIA
CHAPTER ONE
1.1 INTRODUCTION In the 1990s, juvenile delinquency has become a major global problem. The rising incidence of juvenile delinquency in many countries may be caused by certain socio-economic problems often associated with development. These includes; poverty, rapid population growth, unemployment, urbanization, industrialization, inadequate shelter and housing, youth unemployment, and under employment, breakdown of the family unit, inadequate provision of social services and inability of the educational system to respond to new challenges. From the word “juvenile delinquency”, “juvenile” means young people while delinquency means young offenders that are guilty of minor crime or misdeed. Juvenile delinquency as defined by Carter and Hill (1979) means offences committed by young people – theft, smuggling, prostitution, drug trafficking, robbery, raping, violence etc.while Oxford Advanced Learners English dictionary (1869) defined Juvenile delinquency as the offences committed by people below the ages of legal responsibility. It may also be refers to as either violent or non-violent crime committed by persons who are usually under the age of eighteen.
In addition juvenile crime has caused much concern in recent time not only because of the rise in its rate of occurrence, but because of its accompanying implications.
International studies demonstrates that the higher the level of urbanization of a country, the greater the level of criminality. As Shelley,(1980) confirms, “the soviet union also conforms to the internationally established correlation between the level of urbanization and the recorded crime rate”. Increased urbanization has led to the concentration of people into fewer larger centres thus increasing the opportunities for crimes against persons and property respectively (Harries1974).
The trend in Nigeria largely conforms to the issues raised above. Given twenty thousand population as the UNO
CHAPTER ONE
1.1 INTRODUCTION In the 1990s, juvenile delinquency has become a major global problem. The rising incidence of juvenile delinquency in many countries may be caused by certain socio-economic problems often associated with development. These includes; poverty, rapid population growth, unemployment, urbanization, industrialization, inadequate shelter and housing, youth unemployment, and under employment, breakdown of the family unit, inadequate provision of social services and inability of the educational system to respond to new challenges. From the word “juvenile delinquency”, “juvenile” means young people while delinquency means young offenders that are guilty of minor crime or misdeed. Juvenile delinquency as defined by Carter and Hill (1979) means offences committed by young people – theft, smuggling, prostitution, drug trafficking, robbery, raping, violence etc.while Oxford Advanced Learners English dictionary (1869) defined Juvenile delinquency as the offences committed by people below the ages of legal responsibility. It may also be refers to as either violent or non-violent crime committed by persons who are usually under the age of eighteen.
In addition juvenile crime has caused much concern in recent time not only because of the rise in its rate of occurrence, but because of its accompanying implications.
International studies demonstrates that the higher the level of urbanization of a country, the greater the level of criminality. As Shelley,(1980) confirms, “the soviet union also conforms to the internationally established correlation between the level of urbanization and the recorded crime rate”. Increased urbanization has led to the concentration of people into fewer larger centres thus increasing the opportunities for crimes against persons and property respectively (Harries1974).
The trend in Nigeria largely conforms to the issues raised above. Given twenty thousand population as the UNO
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