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1 AFJCLJ 1 (2016)

handle is hein.journals/afcjlocil1 and id is 1 raw text is: AFJCU1 (2016) AN ANALYSIS OF THE CAUSES OF JUVENILE DELINQUENCY IN NIGERIA FROM THE LEGAL AND EMPIRICAL PERSPECTIVES' Abstract This paper examines the prevailing causes of juvenile delinquency in Nigeria. It adopts analytical and qualitative research methodologies by relying on the existing legal and theoretical frameworks and also, a descriptive survey through questionnaires and direct interviews of 1,500 stakeholders from selected states in the six geo-political zones of Nigeria. Purposive and simple random sampling techniques are employed and simple percentage scores and frequency counts are used to analyse the research questions. The results from the descriptive analyses show that the prevailing causes of juvenile delinquency in Nigeria were those encapsulated in the sociological theory of juvenile delinquency. The paper recommends the preventive mechanisms and argues for legal and structural reforms towards economic efficiency, equity and democracy for juveniles. Keywords: Juvenile delinquency, Causes, Theoretical framework, Reforms, Stakeholders, Nigeria. 1. Introduction A child2 if specially nurtured with care and attention will grow in a positive way. Changes in the mental, physical, and spiritual developments of a child make him or her capable of realizing his or her fullest potentials. But in the world today, children live differently from their parents or grandparents due to multiple and sometimes complex factors like harmful surroundings, lack of basic needs, wrong company, relationship with opposite sex and other social factors which may turn them to be delinquents.3 This may be connected to the fact that children get easily influenced by what they see around because of their immaturity. They often get confused about what to do when faced with changes brought about by societal laws and orders as postulated by Adeloye that in a bid to resolve these confusions, the adolescents without proper guidance resort to delinquent behaviour.4Children constitute about 44.3% of Nigeria's population and despite the fact that Nigeria is a 1By Mariam A. ABDULRAHEEM-MUSTAPHA, Ph.D., Faculty of Law, University of Ilorin, Nigeria.E-mail: mariamadepeju78 @gmail.com. Phone: +2348033160695 2In this paper, the terms child, juvenile, young person, adolescent and youth are used interchangeably to refer to children in conflict with the law or beyond parental control. By Rules 2.2 (a) of the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Administration of Juvenile Justice, a juvenile is a child or young person who under the respective legal systems may be dealt with for an offence in a manner which is different from an adult. 3Black's Law Dictionary (Centennial ed. 1981-1991) at p.428 defines a delinquent as an infant of not more than specified age who has violated criminal laws and engaged in disobedient, indecent or immoral conduct and is in need of treatment, rehabilitation or supervision defined by Statute. 4B. Adeloye, Parents Perception ofAdolescents Problems. (Heinemann. Ibadan, 1990) 6-9 5Nigeria has estimated 44.3% of children population according to populationaction.org/wp- content/uploads/2012/01/DemoDev.pdf. See also Population Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations Secretariat, World Population Prospects: The 2010 Revision en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics. Accessed on 24th January, 2013. 11

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