The urban recipe for crime and deviance in Nigeria

Michael Kunnuji

Scholars have for decades had to grapple with the causes and consequences of high rates of crime in cities all over the world. Albeit in a covert manner, there appears to be some consensus on some factors which make urban dwellers more prone to criminality and deviance. Some of these features include unemployment, anonymity, crowding inter alia. The inability of the state to keep records of its population size and distribution gives a peculiar tint to the study of criminality and deviance in Nigerian cities as well as other cities in peripheral states with similar experiences. This not-too-well explored angle to urban criminality and deviance is the focus of this academic exercise. Through a survey of urban dwellers, the study concludes that impersonality, anonymity, heterogeneity, crowding, conspicuous consumption and unemployment combine to create an atmosphere in which crime and deviance thrive in Nigerian cities.