Traditional methods of social control in Afikpo north local government area, Ebonyi state south eastern Nigeria

Abstract

This paper examined the traditional social control mechanisms in Afikpo North LGA of Ebonyi state, south eastern Nigeria. The rising trend in extraneous crimes and vices like kidnapping, baby factories, drug peddling among others seem to be overwhelming for modern social control mechanisms. This has lent credence to myriads of scholarly suggestions targeted towards making the south eastern Nigerian region a sane society. These suggestions are community policing, use of community vigilante and calls to integrating traditional and modern social control mechanisms. This study employed I86 structured questionnaires and the in-depth interview guide as instruments for data collection anchored on the social bond theory. The researcher made use of descriptive statistics to analyze the questionnaires, the frequency tables and simple percentage was used in presenting and interpreting the quantitative data. The data was also processed using the SPSS, for detailed analysis of the questionnaire. The qualitative data from the in-depth interview was analyzed using the manual thematic content analysis. The study found two groups of effective traditional social control methods (human and non-human traditional social control methods) used to ensure social cohesiveness, order and peaceful inter-human relations in Afikpo North LGA of Ebonyi state. Study respondents expressed preference for humanoriented/ managed traditional social control over non-human methods. The study therefore recommends systematic integration of modern and traditional social control methods for holistic effectiveness of both agents of social control in Nigeria.

Key words: social control, traditional social control, deviance, social bond, crimes