Juvenile Justice System In Southern Nigeria

This paper presents a descriptive analysis of southern Nigeria's juvenile justice system in order to show, through comparisons, what people of southern Nigeria consider to be juvenile delinquency and how they treat juvenile offenders. The method that more traditional societies such as those in Nigeria use in handling juvenile offenders may help in dealing with similar offenders in more advanced countries. Based on ethnographic observations in Nigeria and predicated on a review of ethnographic literature on Nigeria as well as a study of the Nigerian Criminal Code and Procedure, the paper suggests that the informal control of juvenile delinquency may be a panacea for recidivism and a consequent criminal career. It further asserts that governments should attempt to make the procedures and structure of the juvenile court, as well as the disposition of the juvenile, more informal than they are in most countries today by establishing neighborhood courts of lay judges.