CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the Study

The nature of a crime is the form that a criminal act takes when it has the potential to cause significant physical, financial or material loss to a victim. Its impact is best judged by how serious the victim perceives the effects to be and how long the harm lasts. The meaning of a crime’s nature is therefore largely a subjective assessment by the victim of what the victimisation has cost him or her, and the extent of the loss shapes how serious the crime is taken to be. Crime is not new in Nigeria, any more than elsewhere, but its forms, techniques and effects change quickly, and new methods can alter the nature of crime in a city such as Ilorin.

Crime remains a major concern in Nigeria. The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) Crime Experience and Security Perception Survey for May 2023 to April 2024 estimated that Nigerian households experienced about 51.9 million crime incidents in the twelve months, and that 21.4% of individuals reported having been victims of a crime. Phone theft was the most common offence, and the survey also recorded about 2.2 million kidnapping incidents, with an estimated N2.23 trillion paid as ransom (NBS, 2024). Earlier survey evidence put Kwara State among the states with the highest levels of reported victimisation, with more than three-quarters of respondents in Kwara, Kebbi and Ebonyi saying they had experienced criminal victimisation in the preceding three years (CLEEN Foundation, 2010).

Official figures, however, capture only the crimes that are reported. The NBS survey found that only 25.7% of households that experienced crime reported it to the police, and that reporting varied considerably by offence: about 90% of phone-theft victims reported, compared with 36.3% of home-robbery victims and 22.7% of victims of sexual offences (NBS, 2024). Across 32 African countries surveyed by Afrobarometer, 56% of people who had experienced a crime in the previous twelve months did not report it to the police, and the reporting rate among Nigerian respondents was lower still (O’Regan, 2018). In Lagos, a study of 948 respondents found that more crime was unreported (52.2%) than reported (47.8%) (Ayodele & Aderinto, n.d.). Reporting is therefore the point at which a victim’s experience becomes a matter for the criminal justice system, and the decision to report has been described as perhaps the most influential decision in the whole system (O’Regan, 2018).

Whether victims report appears to depend on several things. Research across African countries suggests that access to the police, for instance proximity to a police station and ownership of a mobile phone, is associated with a higher likelihood of reporting, that older people and victims of physical attack are more likely to report, and that women are less likely to report than men (O’Regan, 2018). The nature of the crime has also been investigated. In the Lagos study, the nature of crime was not significantly related to whether victims reported it, which led the authors to call for reporting education and a more inclusive reporting regime (Ayodele & Aderinto, n.d.). Little is known about how crime reporting works and what follows for victims in Ilorin Metropolis, the capital of Kwara State. This study addresses that gap by examining crime reporting and its observable impact on victims in Ilorin.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

Societies everywhere have to contend with the consequences of crime, including loss of life and property, fear, political instability and victimisation. Victims’ decisions to report are central to how well any society responds.

Even when a victim reports a crime to a law enforcement officer, the report does not appear in crime statistics unless it is recorded in a way that allows it to be counted. Minor offences in particular may be significantly under-counted when officers are overloaded or do not think the offence worth recording. Reports are often incomplete, and they lack uniformity, which makes investigation and resolution difficult. Timing is another factor: by the time a robbery is reported, the offenders will probably have gone, and the victim may be in hospital, answering police questions or even in the mortuary, so first-hand accounts are scarce.

Some behaviour is labelled deviant when the criminal code does not actually treat it as an offence, and many victims and witnesses are unfamiliar with criminal law. Where reports are not followed up, charges may be dropped even after arrest, for example for lack of evidence, and innocent people may be arrested because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. An offender who pleads guilty to a lesser offence than the one actually committed may receive a lighter and disproportionate sentence. Convictions also depend heavily on the skill of prosecuting and defence counsel. Inconsistent information from witnesses, sometimes given in the hope of attention or reward, further slows the course of justice.

In practice, victims who find the process costly, slow or unrewarding may decide not to report in future, leaving crime under-recorded and the effects on victims unaddressed. National evidence shows that the great majority of crime in Nigeria never reaches the police (NBS, 2024; O’Regan, 2018). This study therefore examines crime case reporting and its observable impact on victims in Ilorin Metropolis.

1.3 Aims and Objectives

The study aims to examine carefully how crime reporting and the handling of reported cases affect the victims of crime, and specifically to:

1. assess the actual level of crime in Ilorin Metropolis as against the level of reported crime;
2. highlight the effect of reported crimes on their victims;
3. make practical suggestions on how to reduce the negative effects of crime on victims;
4. suggest ways in which offenders can be dealt with so that punishment also serves correction; and
5. ascertain who can be held responsible for the spread of criminal activities.

1.4 Research Questions

The study is guided by the following research questions:

1. What is the actual level of crime in Ilorin Metropolis compared with the level of reported crime?
2. What is the observable impact of reported crime on its victims?
3. How can the negative effects of crime on victims be reduced?
4. How can offenders be dealt with in ways that also promote correction?
5. Who can be held responsible for the spread of criminal activities?

1.5 Scope of the Study

The study is concerned mainly with the effects of crime reporting on victims, and with the impact of proper investigation of criminal activities, among members of the Ilorin metropolitan area. It is restricted to a sample selected from across the metropolis, representing a fair proportion of the whole.

1.6 Significance of the Study

The study will add to knowledge of criminal activity and of how it can be reduced. It will provide a basis for further investigation of crime reporting and its psychological and social effects on victims. It will also draw attention to some of the weaknesses in the crime reporting process and suggest ways of improving these services, in line with calls for better reporting systems and reporting education (Ayodele & Aderinto, n.d.; O’Regan, 2018). The findings may be useful to the Nigeria Police Force, the Kwara State Government, policymakers and community and victim-support organisations.

References

Ayodele, J. O., & Aderinto, A. A. (n.d.). Nature of crime and crime reporting of victims in Lagos, Nigeria. International Journal of Criminal Justice Sciences. https://ijcst.journals.yorku.ca/index.php/ijcst/article/view/39707/0

CLEEN Foundation. (2010). Summary of 2010 national crime and safety survey. https://cleen.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Summary-of-2010-National-Crime-and-Safety-Survey.pdf

National Bureau of Statistics. (2024). Crime experience and security perception survey (CESPS) 2024. NBS.

O’Regan, D. (2018). Police-citizen interaction in Africa: An exploration of factors that influence victims’ reporting of crimes (Afrobarometer Working Paper No. 180). Afrobarometer. https://africaportal.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/afropaperno180_police_citizen_interaction_in_africa.pdf