CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
- Background to the Study
One of the most important drivers of today’s world is security. Security is seen in this perspective because of its influential roles on the existence and development of a country or state. In all countries of the world, security is central to a wide variety of social, economic and political activities. The growing needs for security in different parts of the world has given rise to the adoption of multiple security structures to strengthen the protection of lives and property. Thus, apart from the regular police, so many other security apparatuses have been officially adopted. In Nigeria, the list of crime control apparatuses include the Police, Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corp, and several privately owned security companies.
According to Adebayo (2013) one of the problems bedeviling Nigeria is the rising wave of crime. Crime is an act of violating the law and equally a social problem that transcends generations and mankind, and characterized all known contemporary modern societies (Meveigh, 1978). It also an act that brings about offences and it is punishable under the law (Oguntunde, Ojo, Okagbue & Oguntunde, 2018). Many other scholars have given varied definitions of the phenomenon. Adebayo (2013), for instance, has defined crime as the breaking of rules or laws for which some governing authority (via mechanisms such as legal systems) can ultimately prescribe a conviction. In the social and legal framework, crime involves a set of facts or assumptions that are part of a case in which there were committed acts punishable under criminal law, and the application of which depends on the agent of a sentence or security measure criminal. Also, according to Adebayo (2013), in criminal law, crime is an act of omission which attracts sanctions such as fines, imprisonment or even death.
The many types and sophistication of crimes in different parts of the world has also prompted the adoption of several mechanisms of control. Examples of mechanism include operation and raid, stop and search, tip-off, the use of spy, and CCTV Cameras. Similarly, there have been creation of several units of operation which like the general norm of the force, the officers and men are crossed posted and as well deployed to any unit. These and other strategies are meant to strengthen the efficiency of force and boost the capacities of the officers. Despite all these, personality and integrity of the police have still remained questionable. As posited by Karimu (2014) the Nigeria Police Force is known as the major organ that is saddled with the responsibility of crime prevention and control in the country, but the burgeoning crime and the sophistication with which it is executed makes the functions of the Nigeria Police Force very cumbersome and arduous. Since crime has become as complex as human nature and the western panel system which is now preferred to controlling it has not completely offered the solution, this study was aimed at investigating the implications of set-backs of crimes control mechanisms on attitude of security personnel in order to create a framework for making recommendations on how to check the rate of crime in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria.