UNDERSTANDING THE SOCIO-PSYCHOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES OF KIDNAPPING BEHAVIOUR IN CONTEMPORARY NIGERIA

Kenku A. Akeem (PhD), Ogunkuade M. Idowu (PhD)

Abstract


Kidnapping behaviour has become a national issue and discourse as the entire country is now turned to a near kidnappers' den. Accordingly, kidnapping and hostage taking, with resultant demand for ransom, is no longer restricted to the Niger Delta area, or South-South of Nigeria. Cases of such behavior have been reported in other parts of Nigeria like Lagos, Abuja, Benin City, Owerri, Kaduna and Kano, cutting across the entire geopolitical zones of the country. Kidnapping in Nigeria is occasioned by a multiplicity of both individual risk factors and social forces. As a result, this paper seeks to analyse and synthesize thetrend and patternof kidnappers' behaviour with relevant socio-psychological theories, as explanatory model for the main causes of kidnapping and violence in Nigeria. The paper concludes that the advent of gross poverty, social exclusion and injustice, poor quality of life, youth unemployment, poor standard of living, and corruption with impunity at all levels of our national life are all responsible for the current kidnapping behavior in the country.


Keywords


kidnapping, kidnappers, terrorism, violence, hostage, ransom, theories

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