REVIEW OF LITERATURE
2.0 INTRODUCTION
Our focus in this chapter is to critically examine relevant literature that would assist in explaining the research problem and furthermore recognize the efforts of scholars who had previously contributed immensely to similar research. The chapter intends to deepen the understanding of the study and close the perceived gaps.
Precisely, the chapter will be considered in three sub-headings:
Conceptual Framework
Theoretical Framework and
Empirical Review
2.1 CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
Definition of Cybercrime
The complex nature of the term cybercrime has made it very difficult in giving a precise definition. Smith, Grabosky and Urbas (2004) indicated that it is often complicated in getting a unique and consistent definition of cybercrime. This has resulted in multiplicity of terms such as computer crime, computer-related crime, digital crime, information technology crime, internet crime and virtual crime. Alkaabi (2010) articulated that, traditionally, the term cybercrime referred to crimes over networks, especially the internet but the term has increasingly become a general term or replacement for computer crime. Kamal, Chowdhury, Haque, Chowdhury, & Islam (2012) articulated that presently crimes which are committed in the cyber world are not different in this present world. Crimes committed in the cyber world are so complex in nature and its coverage is very wide and massive. There is no precise definition of the term cybercrime. This is because different institutions, departments, organisation and agencies have given different definitions in accordance to their situation and place. Cybercrime is a split word which can be better understood by understanding the split meaning of cyber and crime. According to Anah, Funmi, & Makinde (2012) the word ―Cyber‖ comes as a prefix which is often used to define a new knowledge or idea associated with computers and the internet and ―Crime‖ any act which is considered as wrongdoing or illegal and punishable by law.
Parker was one of the pioneering scholars to write about computer crime. He was adjudged the best scholar on computer security in the United State. Parker uses the term computer abuse to mean computer crime in order to escape having to distinguish between what is crime and what is not. Parker (1980) define his computer abuse as ―any international act in which one or more victims suffered or could have suffered a loss, and one or more perpetrators made or could have made a profit.‖ United Nations (UN) Tenth Congress on the Prevention of Crime and Treatment of Offenders, in a workshop devoted to the issues of crimes related to computer networks, cybercrime was broken into two categories and defined as:
a. Cybercrime in a narrow sense (computer crime): Any illegal behaviour directed by means of electronic operations that targets the security of computer systems and the data processed by them.
b. Cybercrime in a broader sense (computer-related crime): Any illegal behaviour committed by means of, or in relation to, a computer system or network, including such crimes as illegal possession and offering or distributing information by means of a computer system or network. UN further acknowledged that these definitions are complicated by the fact that an act may be illegal in one nation but not in another. Cybercrimes are defined as: ―Offences that are committed against individuals or groups of individuals with a criminal motive to intentionally harm the reputation of the victim or cause physical or mental harm to the victim directly or indirectly, using modern telecommunication networks such as Internet (chat rooms, emails, notice boards and groups) and mobile phones‖ (Hassan, Lass, & Makinde, 2012). Snail (2009) further explains that cybercrime can be defined as any criminal activity that involves a computer. This can be divided into two categories; crimes that can only be committed using a computer which were previously not possible before the dawn of the computer. Examples hacking, sniffing and the production and dissemination of viruses. Secondly, crimes that have been in existence for centuries but now committed within the cyber environment such as fraud, possession and distribution of pornographic materials. The United Kingdom (UK) Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) has defined e-crime as the ―use of networked computers, telephony or internet technology to commit or facilitate the commission of crime.‖ Wall (2007) stated that the term cybercrime ―has a greater meaning if we construct it in terms of transformation of criminal or harmful behaviour by networked technology, rather than simply the behaviour itself‖ he therefore interprets the term cybercrime broadly to refer to ―criminal or harmful activities that involves the acquisition or manipulation of information for gain‖. Olayemi (2014) articulated that cybercrime might rationally comprise of a wide collection of criminal records or offences and it would rather seem like researchers, academicians and law implementation authorities are more free and relaxed to labelling several factors constituting cybercrime rather than trying to define it.
Cyberrime in African Content
The infiltration and acceptance of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in the African has taken the continent to a different level. Even though, accessibility and use of some internet amenities on some parts of Sub-Saharan Africa is still hook up to internet cafés to solve online problem. Countries like Nigeria, Cameroon and Ghana have well established modern internet facilities which are accessible via satellite connections and fiber optic cables. This upsurge in diffusion of ICT has resulted ICT oriented businesses such as e-banking, e-governance, e-justice, telemedicine and many more, particularly in West African coast. However, this boost of ICT has bred a new level of criminal offences called cybercrime. The internet has described as a necessary evil providing chances for people and institutions and also carrying with it a serious threat to global internet cyber security (Boateng, Longe, Mbarika, Avevor, & Isabalija, 2010). A study by Akuta, Ong'oa, & Jones (2011) reported that although the African continent was considered as ―backwards‖ has adopted the ICT world strongly. Internet World Stats acknowledged that the internet use in Africa continent had reached 2.3% of the total global use by December 2007. Africa‘s internet use between the periods of 2000 to 2007 had increased by 423.9% against 180.3% for the rest of the world (Akuta et al., 2011). In a continent that is characterised by high incidence of poverty and increasing youth unemployment governed corruption, the exhibition of money and flashy cars and wealth by cybercriminals can easily pull the unemployment poor young men to join the cybercrime fraternity. As a result a growing number of youth are resorting to cybercriminals in Africa. This white color crime has variety of names, it known in Nigeria as the „Nigerian letter‘ or „419‟, ‗Sakawa‘ or ‗Yahoo-yahoo‘ in Ghana and „Faymania‘ in Cameroon (Atta-Asamoah, 2009).
The increasing usage of the Internet in Africa continent made the Internet and other online means of communication very common. This has brought opportunities for the establishment of online businesses. This has also brought about similar new challenges of cybercrime leading to mistrust among nations, companies and individuals across the world. The widespread nature of cybercrime in Africa has been a worrying issue for all. There is generally low safety and consciousness awareness training programmes from the security agencies available to educate people from becoming victims of cybercrime. These criminals often commit these crimes and go unpunished. This issue gets disturbing when studies revels that Sub Sahara Africa is holds a record of four countries (Nigeria, Cameroon, Ghana and South Africa) among the top ten countries globally engaged cybercrime (Reasentse, 2015). Nigeria is observed as the nucleus or safe haven for cybercrimes around the globe which has been earmarked by the international community for their allege envelopment in such a wicked cybercrime. The country has been graded 3 rd globally after the USA and Britain and number one in Sub Sahara Africa (Merwe, 2015). Cybercrime is the fastest growing area of criminality among crime. Day in day out criminals are abusing and manipulating the internet with anonymity to commit different kinds of crimes globally. These crimes come in various format which causes serious harm and threat to global peace and cyber security. Atta-Asamoah (2009) articulated that during the last two decades many uninvited e-mails and other related letters were spreading from the Africa. Such letters were so tempting and inviting and it normal contain fraudulent information such as business proposals, inheritance reclamation, job offers, announcement of lottery wins, marriage proposals, immigration offers, admission to overseas academic institutions to money transfers and property sales, among others. Nigeria is the originator of such crimes. However, this practice has recently engulfed many youth in West Africa spending sleeping sleepless nights in cybercafé scouting for victims online to draw millions of dollars from innocent people across the globe. Boateng et al. (2010) found that majority of agents of cyber criminals are teenagers under school going ages of 15 years in Ghana. They form 88% representing the bulk of the respondents. This was affirmed by the Commercial Crime unit of the Ghana Police Service in an interview. They declared that majority of cybercriminals are the adolescents representing 85%. Related crimes comprise child pornography, hacking sites to get access to credit cards and downloading films for sale.
Prevalence of Cybercrime in Nigeria
At the turn of 21st century, Nigerian internet infiltration levels have increased rapidly. According to Bengal, Babatope & Bankable, (2012) the number used to be less than 5% in 2002-2003, and later stood at over 30% by the end of 2012 and this growth is only equanimous to speed up. The introduction of mobile telephone on the Nigerian market played a crucial role and a key drive of advancement. At the end of the first quarter of 2016 (January-March 2016), Nigeria is the 16thhighest ranked country moving up two places from 18th position in the previous quarter. Developing nations especially the Africans countries were highly represented in the upper rankings and Nigeria was surpassed by a handful of other African countries, including Namibia and Malawi in second and fourth spots respectively (The news, 2016). However, the rise of the internet in Nigeria has come with a non-deliberated consequence and global notoriety becomes a safe haven for cyber fraudsters. Back in the 90s, fraud in Nigeria society was popular called 419 in reference to section 1(3) of the advance fee fraud and other related offenses Act No. 14 of 2006 penal code that framed the criminal justice system in Nigeria. At the time, person(s) who were arrested in connection to that law were labelled ‘419ers’ (Bengal, et al 2012). Consumer Reports State of the Net (2007) shows that more than $7 billion cost of cybercrime on U.S consumers was estimated and also, The Internet Crime Compliant Centre (2012), reported that victims had losses over $500,000. In 2012, the Internet Crime Complaint Centre (IC3) received 289,874 consumer complaints, with losses of $525,441,110 (Ndubueze, 2013). According to Ndubueze (2013) it shows 8.3% increase in losses from the previous year and the most affected victim complaint country was the United States with 91.2%. The most frequently reported cybercrimes complaints were auto fraud, military impersonation e-mail scam, romance scam, intimidation/exploitation scam and among others as stressed by Ndubueze, (2013). To appraise the prevalence of cybercrime in Nigeria, quantitative research was employed in collecting information around losses in terms of money, time and material incurred by citizens through cybercrime. According to Bengal et al, (2012), the prevalence appraisal a survey was used to estimate how many of Nigerian’s 48.3 million internet users experienced the loss. This was used to compute the estimated loss for Nigeria. This led to the estimated Nigerian consumer loss of #2,146,666,345,014.75 ($13,547,910,034.80) to cybercrime in 2012 (Bengal, et al 2012). The reported case ranges from fake lotteries to the biggest internet scams. In July 2001, The Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) arrested four Nigerians suspected to be involved in cybercrime that duped unsuspecting foreign investors in Ghana. Two young men were recently arrested after making an online purchase of two laptops advertised by a woman on her website under false claim. They were arrested at the point of delivery by government officials. Recently, the Ibadan tonal office of the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) arrested a 26 year old student of Equity State University, Ado-Equity for internet fraud, deceiving unsuspecting victims on military dating sites posing as Nigeria-based US Army officer by the name Sergeant Frank McGhee (EFCC, 2016).
Forms of Cybercrimes
There are several types of cyber-crimes some of which explored in this section.
a) Cyber terrorism: A cyber terrorist can be described as someone who launches attack on government or organization in order to distort and or access stored information stored on the computer and their networks. According to Matusitz (2005) a cyberterrorist is someone who intimidates a government or to advance his or her political or social objectives by launching computer-based attack against computers, network, and the information stored on them. In this view, Olusola, Samson, Semiu and Yinka (2013) defined cyber terrorism as an act of terrorism committed through the use of cyberspace or computer resources. It means that any act intended to instil fear by accessing and distorting any useful information in organizations or government bodies using computer and internet is generally referred to as cyber terrorism. Another form of cyber terrorism is cyber extortion and it is a form of cyber terrorism in which a website, e-mail server, computer systems is put under attacks by hackers for denial of services, demanding for ransom in return. Cyber extortionists are increasingly attacking corporate websites and networks, crippling their ability to operate and demanding payments to restore their service (Hassan, Lass & Makinde, 2012).
b) Fraud - Identity theft: Fraud is a criminal activity in which someone pretends to be another person and retrieves vital information about the person; for instance, making a false bank webpage to retrieve information of someone’s account. The concept is simple and simply connotes someone gaining access to another’ personal information and uses it for his or her own benefit. This could range from a black-hat hacker stealing online banking account login and password to getting access to ATM and using such people can make themselves a lot of money with personal information. In Nigeria people design web links forms requesting users to fill in their basic information including, unique details like pin numbers and use that to commit crimes (Olusola, Samson, Semiu &Yinka, 2013).
c) Drug trafficking deals: Another type of cyber-crime is drug trafficking; according to Hassan, Lass and Makinde (2012), it is a global trade involving cultivation, manufacture, distribution and sale of substances which are subject to drug prohibition law. Drug traffickers are increasingly taking advantage of the Internet to sell their illegal substances through encrypted e-mail and other internet technology. Some drug traffickers arrange deals at internet cafes, use courier web sites to track illegal packages of pills, and swap recipes for amphetamines in restricted-access chat rooms. The rise in Internet drug trades could also be attributed to the lack of face-to-face communication. These virtual exchanges allow more intimidated individuals to make comfortably purchase of illegal drugs (Nosrati, Hariri & Shakarbeygi, 2013).
d) Malware: Malware refers to viruses, Trojans, worms and other software that gets onto your computer without you being aware it’s there. Back in the early part of the century, most such software’s primary aim was thrill. The people writing the software found it amusing to write a program that exploited security flaws just to see how far it could spread. Today the incentive for making such software is generally more dangerous. In some cases, a piece of malware will pretend to be a legitimate piece of software. When such software is downloaded, it infects the computer system and destroys valuable information. The Trojan horse is also a technique for creating an automated form of computer abuse called the salami attack, which works on financial data. This technique causes small amounts of assets to be removed from a larger pool. The stolen assets are removed one slice at a time (Olusola, Samson, Semiu &Yinka 2013).
e) Cyber stalking: Cyber stalking is essentially using the internet to repeatedly harass another person. This harassment could be sexual in nature, or it could have other motivations including anger. People leave a lot of information about themselves online (Acquisti & Gross, 2009). Such information can leave one vulnerable to cyber stalking, a term that essentially refers to using the internet to stalk (to illegally follow and watch somebody) (Lewis, Kaufman & Christakisin, 2005). Whereas content may be offensive in a non-specific way, harassment directs obscenities and derogatory comments at specific individuals focusing for example on gender, race, religion, nationality, sexual orientation. This often occurs in chat rooms, through newsgroups, and by sending hate e-mail to interested parties (Nosrati, Hariri & Shakarbeygi, 2013).
f) Spam: this is the use of electronic messaging systems to send unsolicited bulk messages indiscriminately. While the most widely recognized form of spam is e-mail spam, the term is applied to similar abuses in other media: instant messaging spam, spam in blogs, wiki spam, mobile phone messaging spam, Internet forum spam, junk fax transmissions, social networking spam, television advertising and file sharing network spam etc. Some of these address harvesting approaches rely on users not reading the fine print of agreements, resulting in them agreeing to send messages indiscriminately to their contacts. This is a common approach in social networking spam such as that generated by the social networking site (Saul, 2007). Spamming remains economically viable because advertisers have no operating costs beyond the management of their mailing lists, and it is difficult to hold senders accountable for their mass mailings. This is because the barrier to entry is so low, spammers are numerous, and the volume of unsolicited mail has become very high. A person who creates electronic spam is called a spammer (Hassan, Lass & Makinde, 2012).
g) Logic Bombs: A typical logic bomb tells the computer to execute a set of instructions at a certain date and time or under certain specified conditions. The instructions may tell the computer to display “I gotcha” on the screen, or it may tell the entire system to start erasing itself. Logic bombs often work in tandem with viruses. Whereas a simple virus infects a program and then replicates when the program starts to run, the logic bomb does not replicate – it merely waits for some pre-specified event or time to do its damage. Time is not the only criterion used to set off logic bombs. Some bombs do their damage after a particular program is run a certain number of times (Olusola, Samson, Semiu & Yinka 2013). Others are more creative. There are several reported cases that a programmer told the logic bomb to destroy data if the company payroll is run and his name is not on it; this is a sure-fire way to get back at the company if he is fired! The employee is fired, or may leave on his own, but does not remove the logic bomb. The next time the payroll is run and the computer searches for but doesn’t find the employee’s name, it crashes, destroying not only all of the employee payroll records, but the payroll application program as well. Logic bombs present a major threat to computer systems, not just because of the damage they themselves can do, but because they provide a technique to facilitate more devastating crimes (Hassan, Lass & Makinde, 2012).
h) Password Sniffing: Password sniffers are able to monitor all traffic on areas of a network. Crackers have installed them on networks used by systems that they especially want to penetrate, like telephone systems and network providers. Password sniffers are programs that simply collect the first 128 or more bytes of each network connection on the network that's being monitored. When a user types in a user name and a password as required when using certain common internet services like file transfer protocol (FTP) (which is used to transfer files from one machine to another) or Telnet (which lets the user log in remotely to another machine) the sniffer collects that information (Peter, Kenneth, Lucasz, Tom & Michael, 2006).
Overview of Cybercrime in Nigeria
Cybercrime in Nigeria can be defined as computer-enabled crime originating from Nigeria and is classified into three categories (WITFOR 2005):
1. Computer-aided crime perpetrated by Nigerians locally and internationally
2. Crimes perpetrated against Nigerian information and telecommunication resources.
3. Computer-aided crime committed by Non-Nigerians giving the similarities of a “Nigerian” origin (WITFOR, 2005).
Longe and Chiemeke (2008) argue that the first category is crimes committed daily with the aid of the internet through sending fraudulent and fictitious financial proposals around the world. This set of criminal activity is tagged as “419 scammers”. Ribadu (2007) further argues that the second category which is crime perpetrated against Nigerian Information and telecommunications is related to mail scam, credit card fraud and insurance fraud. The third category are cybercrime activities committed by Non-Nigerians but made to look like ‘419’ crimes. Amongst them are cybercrime activities originating from Cameroun which seems to have a high prevalence of cybercrime in Central Africa (Akuta, Ong’oa & Jones, 2011).
Causes of Cybercrime
Cybercrime is one of the most common and prevalent among the youth which affects many countries in the world. This is caused by many factor and the culprits are warmly welcome and received by certain individuals and social institutions after making money through this unapproved means (Ninalowo, 2016). People attribute causes of cybercrime to many reasons which includes;
Attitude of Getting-Rich-Quick
Every human being have choice to make in live which could either be good or bad choice. However, some people choose to cut through the illegal ways of making money. Shehu (2014) revealed that most people especially the poor want to bridge the wider gap of poverty through cybercrime. They are very keen in making money by all means possible within the shortest period of time which often pushed them to cybercrime. Meke (2012) indicated that people who are poor are more engaged into cybercrime than the rich people. Poverty is evil and has a direct relationship with crime. Poor people are more vulnerable to committing crime than the rich people.
Growth in E-commerce and E-businesses
Serianu, United State International University-Africa (2016) in Ghana cybersecurity report testified that, there is a high growth in electronic business. Most financial institutions have move to electronic banking system and cashless transactions. These initiatives comes with some level of risk which gave birth to online scams, ATM skimming and identity theft.
Weak Cybercrime Laws/ Legislation
Okeshola and Adeta (2013) believed that, menace of cybercrime prevail more on places where there are not strict and stringent laws to deal precisely with cybercriminals. Perpetrators of cybercrime mostly go unpunished which could motive other people to practice cybercrime. Ani (2011) concluded that weak laws inspire people to ignore the consequential effects of committing virtual crime.
Unemployment
There is so much risk and evil associated with youth not engage in any productive economic activity. High rate of youth unemployment can easily influence the youth to engage in crimes such as stealing, robbery, and cybercrime (Okeshola & Adeta, 2013; Warner, 2011).
Parental Control
Lack of parental control is another cause of cybercrime. Evidence from Adejoh, Alabi, Adisa, & Emezie (2019) disclosed that some parents indirectly support their children by ignoring interrogate means of sustenance. Some parents refuse to report crimes of their children to the police when they are aware that their children are into cybercrime. Some have no idea on what kind of work their children engage to make money whether legal or illegal means.
Accessibility to Internet and Technology
Easy access to internet bandwidth coupled with availability of personal computers and other hand held mobile gadget offer people the opportunity to commit various types of online crimes (Aiken, Davidson & Amann, 2016; Adejoh et al., 2019).
Vengeance or Payback
Most young cybercriminals or sakawa boys try to justify their thievery actions. Warner (2011) revealed that, in Ghana most of the sakawa youth believe that they paying back to the white men for taking our gold and our great grandparents. This is the only means we can get them pay for what they did to us. This is the redistribution of wealth and social justice. The only we can avenge for our forefathers is through this means (Okeshola & Adeta, 2013).
Peer Pressure
Peer group is very effective and influential. Confirmation form Adejoh et al. (2019) and Obiri Yeboah (2015) revealed that, youth that are involved in this scamming business are students. They are group of desperate youth who have seen their colleagues made through cybercrime so they try to emulate them. They see their peers living in flamboyant lifestyle, driving nice cars, putting on nice dresses and watches so they too want to look exactly like their friends and they finally join in whatever their friend are in to.
Fame/ Societal Recognition
Fame is another incentive package which drives young people into cybercrime. Hassan et al. (2012) identified fame as one of the causes of cybercrime. Some societies put much recognition and weight on people with money and properties. Such societies celebrate wealth without questioning their source and held such people in high esteem. This act drives people into cybercrime.
Statistics of Cybercrime in Nigeria
According to the Internet Crime Complaint Center (2016) annual report on internet crime, Nigeria is currently ranked 18th in the world in terms of complainant reporting of cybercrime and ranked 12th in terms of complainant loss. This is seen as an improvement to an earlier Internet Crime Report (2010) that ranked Nigeria third at 5.8% just behind United State of America with the highest prevalence of cybercrime activities in the world. According to the Internet World Stats (2016) report, Nigeria has a population of 185 million of which 97 million are Internet users representing 52% internet penetration.
Figure 2.1 shows an overview of digital statistics in Nigeria.
Figure 2.1: Overview of Digital Statistics Indicators in Nigeria (We Are Social, 2016)
Figure 2.1 shows the following digital indicators in Nigeria. Such indicators are: total population of 184.6 million; active internet users of 97.2 million; active social media users of 15 million; mobile connections of 154.3 million; and active mobile social media users of 11 million (We Are Social, 2016).
Perception Of Cybercrimes Commited By Nigerian Youths
Various scholars have examined the term “perception. People perceive things in a way that accord to their beliefs, interests, motives, needs and learning. According to Obono (2008: 40), cybercrime describes “those criminal acts either committed in cyberspace, such as various forms of identity theft and bank fraud, or acts that have a physical component and are simply facilitated by the use of internet-based tools”. Such acts commonly include distribution of fraudulent e-mails, and pornography on the internet. He further notes that cybercrimes are illegal activities perpetrated by one or more people using the cyberspace through the medium of networked computers, telephones and other information and communication technology equipment. There is hardly any crime committed in the world today that does not have cybercrimes undertone, because of high of dependence on modern technology. According to Oketola (2009:49) some young people use the web for information on current issues in health, education, politics, researches, sports, and for personal development as well as building skills. While others, misuse it for unconstructive activities. It is perceived by many, that what constitutes young people’s involvement in cybercrimes largely depends on their low level of moral standards, peer pressure corruption, greed, poverty, and get-rich-quick-syndrome, lack of parental guidance and lack of jobs.
Effects of Cybercrime
For the past years cybercrime have cost a lot of destruction to many countries, organization and individuals across the globe. Button, Lewis & Tapley (2014) articulated that, cybercrime is a worldwide threat and every patron of cyber-enabled tools as well as e-businesses is prone to the victimisation of cybercriminals. The effects of this cybercrime menace are huge and devastating. Unlike other crimes, this form of crime is limitless in scope which possesses a multiple effects on the victim and society at large. Some of the effects are discussed below:
Emotional or Psychological Effects
The effects are usually emotional or mentally and vague in nature. Evidence from Brody and Perri (2016) indicated that, most victims neglect to report their cases because of depression and shame, stupid or greedy to narrate their ordeal to authorities who can take legal actions. This makes it often difficult to take legal action against victims. Most victims are frustrated and resort to drugs and other unacceptable lifestyle and in worse cases victims commits suicide.
Data and Financial Lost
Companies and individuals are losing money and valuable information through cybercrime. According Morgan & Park (2019) the effects of cybercrime is so endemic which ranges from data damages, stealing of funds and assets, intellectual property theft, identity theft, financial theft and many others. They established that cybercrime epidemic will lead to global loss of six trillion dollars yearly by 2021, double increase from three trillion dollars in 2015.
Defamation of Image
Cybercrime gives bad image to countries that are mostly engaged it. Okeshola & Adeta (2013) stated that Nigeria has been listed as one of the countries in the world with high cybercrime dominance in the world. This has stained the good reputation of the country. Most foreign investors are afraid to invest and do business in places with this negative tendency.
Loss of Life
Most of the youth engaged is cybercrime in Ghana often resort spiritual means to ensure continues flow of their financial success. Warner (2011) proof that, many deaths and injuries over the past years have been blamed on sakawa boys in Ghana. There have been cases of some of them been paralysed in the process of performing sakawa rituals, murder, kidnappings, and removal of genitals by these cybercriminals for rituals.
School Dropout
Many students are dropping out of school to concentrate on making money through cybercrime. Oluwadare, Oluwasanmi & Igbekoyi (2018) stated that Nigeria educational system is in deplorable state by proliferation of cybercrime culprits into the system. Currently, most students in Nigeria prefer materials they obtain from cybercrime to schooling making them dropouts and lazy to develop the culture of reading.
Socio-Economic Effects of Cybercrime
Cybercrime has had a negative impact on the Nigerian economy; it has the potential to adversely impact on technological growth within the country which is intended to be a stepping stone to improving productivity and socio-economic growth for the following reasons:
a. International financial institutions consider paper-based Nigerian financial instruments with suspicion making Nigerian bank drafts and checks not viable international financial instruments.
b. Nigerian Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are regularly being black-listed in e-mail blocking blacklist systems across the cyberspace.
c. Some companies and businesses are blocking entire Internet network segments and traffic that originates from Nigeria,
d. Newer and more sophisticated technologies are gradually emerging and that makes it convenient to isolate Nigerian e-mail traffic.
e. Key national infrastructure and information security assets are more prone to be compromised or damaged by unauthorized users. (WITFOR 2005)
Nigerian Government Efforts in Combating Cybercriminals
According to Adomi and Igun (2008), the Nigerian Government had to take drastic measures in order to curtail the activities of cybercriminals. Due to the negative financial and economic consequences of cybercrime in Nigeria, the government pursued the following efforts:
e. Creation of a central agency to enforce criminal laws
f. Regulation of cybercafés
g. Enactment of Cyber laws
h. Government partnership with Microsoft
The WITFOR Report (2005) shows that the Nigerian government set up a Presidential Committee on cybercrime to examine the root causes and proffer solutions in order to tackle the problem. The committee report recommended the creation of a legal and institutional framework to tackle cybercrime in Nigeria. The creation of a central agency to enforce cybercrime laws in the country was the main theme of the report which subsequently led to the creation of the Nigerian Cybercrime Working Group (NCWG) in 2004 (WITFOR 2005).
Nigerian Cybercrime Working Group (NCWG)
The main aim of the NCWG was to develop appropriate legal and institutional frameworks in securing the Nigerian cyberspace (Adomi and Igun, 2008). The NCWG is an inter-agency consisting of most relevant law enforcement, security, intelligence, ICT Agencies of government and major private organizations in the ICT sector. Some of these agencies include the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Nigeria Police Force (NPF), the National Security Advisor (NSA), Nigerian Communication Agency (NCC), Internet Service Providers’ Association of Nigeria (ISPAN), Nigeria Computer Society (NCS), Department of State Services (DSS), National Intelligence Agency (NIA), Nigeria Internet Group (NIG), National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) and individual citizens representing public interest. The duties of the NCWG include:
1. Engaging in public enlightenment programme ‘
2. Building institutional consensus amongst existing agencies
3. Providing technical assistance to the National Assembly on cybercrime and the drafting of cybercrime act
4. Creating the framework for a cybercrime agency that will eventually emerge to take charge in tackling cybercrime in Nigeria
5. Collaborating with global cybercrime enforcement agencies in the USA, UK and other countries who are at the forefront of fighting cybercrime (WITFOR 2005).
2.2 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
This deals with the theory which strengthens the study. Theoretical framework describes the theory that explains why the research problem under study exists. It helps the researcher to explain the research questions or hypotheses. Theoretical framework also gives explanation to causes and effects and also helps the researcher to come out with the types of research questions that need to be addressed (Clark and Creswell, 2011). Again, this also serves as modules that guide the organisation and data collection procedures in the research. Various theoretical concepts are adopted by researchers in dealing with crime. One of these technologies adopted for this study will include:
The Social Strain Theory (SST)
This study adopted Merton‘s strain theory to explain cybercrime activities of the senior high school students in Tamale Metropolis. Merton (1938) is a pioneer of this major theory to offer better explanation and understanding on criminology. Merton (1938) contends that everybody in a society is encouraged to struggle for opportunities in terms of monetary success. However, lower class people are often sidelined and denied towards the attainment of such goals through genuine means. When such a situation occurs such individuals are unable to provide their families with school fees, skill, businesses and other basic needs necessary for their future success. Consequently, such lower class people develop a strain. This strain disconnects them from achieving their goals through legitimate means. Merton expanded Durkheim's anomie theory to give clarity to a diversity of deviant conducts in our societies (Hilbert, 1989). Hilbert (1989) refers to strain or anomie ―as the imbalance between culturally defined goals and socially or institutionally presented means for realising these goals‖. This implies that some individuals are most likely not to attain these culturally approved goals through the approved institutional means, hence they veer to unauthorised means to obtain these cultural goals by other ways. To some individuals there is structural strain between the goals and means of society. Merton acknowledged five answers to these problems of deviance. These deviances are: Conformity, Innovation, Ritualism, Retreatism and Rebellion. Conformity; this conforms with and takes recognition of the cultural goals and means of attaining those goals. Innovation; this kind of deviance chases goals whiles rejecting legitimate means rather than adopting illegal/ illegitimate means. Ritualism; here cultural goals are rejected but rather accept the legitimate means of achieving goals. Retreatism; this however, refuses or rejects both the cultural goals and the traditional means of achieving those goals. Rebellion; in this case people abandon both goals and means but aggressively tries to swap both goals and means with different social structures (Merton, 1968). Among the five deviance adaptations, four of them deviate from culturally goals or socially and institutionally accepted means of attaining success in the society. For the purposes of this study, the emphasis would be on the Innovators. The innovator could possibly accept the socially approved means to achieving success. However, limited possible means of reaching such success could deviate them from following the right channel. He may therefore decide to innovate his own possible means to achieve institutionally goals through other unlawful means, for example armed robbery, drug dealers, prostitutes and cybercrime (sakawa). Merton‘s strain theory pointed at those who are involved in criminal activities such as cheating and other dishonest ways of accomplishing success. However, in Ghana there is no specific law that limits people in terms of wealth acquisition. Abotchie (2012) claims that to the innovators, whilst the urban culture stresses on material accomplishment, the truth remain that social institutions in our societies put limits to the approved means of accomplishing success. Abotchie (2012) further stress that as a results of the extreme composition and struggle for success in our urban communities, Merton‘s innovation is seen as the obvious choice to adopt for survival.
Differential Association Theory (DAT)
Another well-known established theory which offers a clear explanation to criminal behaviour is Edwin Sutherland‘s Differential Association which was developed in 1939.
This is a scholarly learning theory of criminology and deviance in our societies. Regoli and Hewitt (1997:181) stressed that this theory has continued to be extremely significant in the field of modern criminology regarding how people reflect on crime as differential association. According to Sutherland (1939) ―criminal behaviour is learned in the same way as law-abiding values are learned, and that, this learning activity is accomplished in interactions with others through a process of communication within intimate groups. He further argues that, just as one can be socialised into good behaviour, so also can one be socialised into bad behaviour‖. The theory sustained its relevance because of its comprehensive ability to explain all types of criminal action, from juvenile delinquency to white collar crime.
The theory of differential association consists of nine principles:
1. All criminal behaviour is learned; it is not hereditary. This implies a person who is not already educated or learned criminal act cannot develop such acts.
2. Criminal behaviour is learned through interactions with others via a process of communication. This communication could be verbal and non-verbal.
3. The learning occurs within the intimate groups and relationships: This means that peer or family groups and relations are the most likely sources of initiation into deviance and criminal beliefs and actions. By this Sutherland implies that, impersonal agencies of communication such as picture shows movies, social media, newspapers play relatively unimportant part in the creation of criminal behaviour.
4. The process of learning criminal behaviour may include learning about techniques to carry out the behaviour as well as the motives and justifications that would defend criminal activity and attitudes necessary to orient an individual towards such activity.
5. The direction of motives and drives towards criminal behaviour is learned through the interpretation of legal codes in one‘s geographical area as favourable or unfavourable.
6. When the numbers of favourable interpretations that support violating the law outweigh the unfavourable interpretations that do not, an individual will choose to become a criminal. This is the central belief of differential association theory. It reinforces the belief that the definitions favourable to the violation of law can be learned from both criminal and non-criminal people.
7. All differential associations are not equal. They can vary in frequency, intensity, priority, and duration.
8. The process of learning criminal behaviours through interactions with others relies on the same mechanisms that are used in learning about any other behaviour. This means that, the methods for learning criminal behaviour are the same as those for law abiding values and other socially relevant skills. The suggestion is that, in as much as the content of what is learned is different, the process giving rise to criminal behaviour is the same as any other law-abiding behaviour.
9. Criminal and non-criminal behaviours all express generalised needs and values. In other words, the objectives and goals of criminals and non-criminals are generally the same. For instance most cybercriminals defraud people in order to make money. Likewise genuine people work with the financial value in mind. What differentiates them is their approach in achieving this same goal.
Differential association theory has played a very significant role in providing explanations to criminal behaviours in the field of criminology. However, the theory has received some critiques.
Sutherland and Cressey (1978) posit that high crime rate is due to differential social organisation. In places where crime rates are high, interactions with other people could lead a decent child to learn and gain unacceptable behaviours within the area. The theory has been criticised by some intellectuals who claim it is a flawed as it fails to take into account of people who commit crimes out of their free will. People are self-regulated, independently motivated beings. Sutherland was also criticised for failing to consider people who indulge in wrongdoing due to their personal characteristics like aggressiveness. However, the theory has been instrumentals in clarifying how lawbreakers acquire their lawless behaviours.
2.3 EMPIRICAL STUDIES
The following are some of the studies carried out on this Subject matter;
Asokhia (2010:13-19) in his work, titled “Enhancing National Development and Growth through Combating Cybercrime/ Internet Fraud”, carried out a comparative study of young adults perception of cybercrime in two Local Government Area of Edo State. His findings were that cybercrime were very prevalent in two Local Government Areas. More revealing is the fact the impact of television that the young people are aware of and the uncensored video and radio programmes also evolve in one kind of cybercrime or the other. Adam (2008:432-443) in his work, “The impact of internet crime on development”, concludes that the internet is overwhelmingly a powerful tool for development. Paradoxically, the internet is a “double- edged sword”, providing many opportunities for individuals and organizations to develop but at the same time, has brought with it new opportunities to commit crime. He argues that the internet presents new challenges to law enforcement in both development and developing countries. However, developing countries suffer greatly from the activities of internet crime more than their developed counterparts as developing countries have inadequate technology, infrastructure and insufficient law enforcement expertise.
THE MISSPIN AMBASSADORS- the Misspin Ambassadors are a team of twenty four young people who were selected to contribute to sensitizing and creating awareness around cybercrime issues. They are located all over Nigeria and, for the last 12 months, have held various- activities from workshops to media campaigns. OLUMIDE one of the MISSPIN Ambassadors, in partnership with AIESEC and a 400 Level Student of Computer Science at the University of Abuja, has within the last one year of the MISSPIN campaign engaged young people within and around the University campus in anti-cybercrime campaigns. He has coordinated a campus –wide rally against cybercrimes while also sensitizing internet café operators in the area against the danger of permitting scammers and the sending of scam mails within the precincts of their cyber cafes. Robert who is also a MISSPIN Ambassador, in partnership with Dtalkshop, publishers of Takaii Law magazine, with the support of the Association of Nigeria Authors, Robert has taken the MISSPIN campaign to several Secondary Schools in Lagos and Calabar. Among other campaign efforts, Robert coordinates an anticybercrime media advocacy through the publication of Blingz Magazine, a youthled magazine dedicated to celebrating positive virtues among Nigeria’s legitimately enterprising youths. Ajayi (2006:56), he examined cybercrime as a phenomenon that is dysfunctional to the country. Evidence abound that is not only the persons that are duped that suffer for this, the immediate family dependants as well as the society where these victims are from, directly feel the effect of this act. The perpetrators country, also suffers the image problem, even to the extent of losing billions of naira, legitimate investment that is supposed to come to the country. Hence, the companies that ought have established and employed the unemployed Nigerian cannot come to the country. Thus, unemployment continues to rampage the country.