Claude Ake (1982: 8, 3), in his Presidential Address to the 1982 Convention of the Nigerian Political Science Association, criticized Nigerian society, politics, and state behavior in damning terms: A predatory capitalism has bred misery, turned politics into warfare and all but arrested the development of productive forces. The Nigerian ruling class has assaulted the masses with physical and psychological violence and thwarted their aspirations, particularly their escape from underdevelopment and poverty. Legitimacy has receded to the background, making way for relations of raw power and the perception of right as being coextensive with might. Ake's views reflect a common perception that the Nigerian state survives by coercion as other means of gaining the compliance of the populace-the capacity to create a legitimating consciousness or utilitarian pay-offs-have proven ineffective, or have been wasted by a rapacious ruling class and its clients. Coercion, of course, means the police and the military. This paper focuses on the control and autonomy of coercion, concretely examined as the actions of the police, in the political economy of Nigeria. Who controls the police and how autonomous are they as an organization and as individuals? The paper argues that the state and the police are relatively autonomous from class control; that the police have interests of their own which will influence both what they do or refuse to do; and that the police are a very weak reed for the ruling class to relay upon.

Policing Nigeria: Control and Autonomy in the Exercise of Coercion

Victimization surveys and the accuracy and reliability of official crime data in developing countriesPublications received

The Research, Analysis and Information Unit (RAI) of the National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA) have identified ‘the procedural justice thesis’ as an important development in policing research with plans to replicate US research in a UK context. To facilitate their research agenda, the Centre of Excellence in Policing and Security (CEPS) at Griffith University developed a comprehensive search strategy and conducted a methodologically rigorous systematic literature search of procedural justice between April and June, 2009. Twenty-two keywords were identified and searched on six electronic databases and two library catalogues.

https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:230758/UQ230758_NPIA_Report.pdf

Procedural Justice: A systematic literature search and technical report to the National Policing Improvement Agency

Police Culture in Nigeria: A Comparative Perspective

Crowding in correctional facilities is a major problem that has continued to overwhelm correctional policy makers. Although this problem has always existed, it has of late taken on added importance due to diminishing public resources, especially needed  funds for new prison construction  and the heightened publicity that the crime problem has received.  The negative effects of crowding in correctional facilities often culminate in riots. When these riots occur, public attention becomes focused on crime and the criminal and questions begin to be asked about conditions in correctional facilities. Partly as a result of misperception of public opinion with regard to punishment and partly because of lack of the will to try other solutions, policy makers often resort to prison spatial or capacity expansion programs(new construction and rehabilitation of existing ones) as a panacea. It becomes the major means of reducing crowding in correctional facilities. To create more prison space, policy makers are inclined to increase correctional capital expenditures while neglecting alternatives to incarceration expenditures. This study investigates this phenomenon as it applies to the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the State of New York, USA. The study also looks at crime rates as they affect crowding in correctional facilities in the said entities. The method of analysis involves development of a Translog (Transcendental logarithmic) model. The model was estimated using Ordinary Least Squares method, with Crowding as the dependent variable and capital construction expenditures, alternatives to incarceration expenditures and crime rates as independent or explanatory variables. The results of the study indicate that alternatives to incarceration expenditures appear to be more effective in reducing crowding in correctional facilities than capital construction expenditures. The result also shows that crime rates are positive determinants of crowding. Keywords: Crowding, Over-crowding, Architecture for Justice, Capital Construction Expenditures, Construction Expansion, Spatial Expansion, Correctional Facility, Prison, Alternatives to Incarceration Expenditures, Translog Functions

/pdf/on-architecture-for-justice-a-translog-analysis-of-capital-3r1buahe3u.pdf

On Architecture for Justice: A Translog Analysis of Capital Construction and Spatial Expansion as Panacea for Facility Crowding in Nigeria and New York

Marshall Carter

Papers

Law enforcement and political change in post-civil war Nigeria