Caught, clubbed and burnt: criminological reflections on the incidence of jungle justice in Benin Metropolis, southern Nigeria

Abstract

All over Southern Nigeria, incidents of people taking the law into their hands and meting out instant justice on suspected criminals without recourse to the rule of law and the position of Section 33 (1) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria abound. This motivation for participation in jungle justice was therefore explored. A combination of both qualitative and quantitative techniques was employed to collect data from six hundred and fifteen respondents. A descriptive analysis of the quantitative data collected was undertaken, using frequency distribution while the qualitative data were content analysed. Findings from this study reveal that motivation for jungle justice was multifaceted. Illiteracy, lack of trust on the police, flaccid court system, chronic anger due to economic situation and disregard for the rule of law and human right were some of the motivation for the alarming incidence of the social phenomenon. Based on the findings of this study, there is the need to overhaul the criminal justice processes with a view to boosting the confidence of the public in its activities and also embark on a teaching on no violence and the ills of jungle justice.

Keywords: Jungle justice, court, police, human rights