LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

2.1 Conceptualizing Poverty

Poverty is multi-dimensional. It wears a multitude of faces and has numerous dimensions. It threatens all aspects of living by depriving people of the capabilities needed to survive, develop and thrive. Poverty entrenches or widens social, economic and gender disparities that prevent people from enjoying equal opportunities and undermines protective family and community environments, leaving people affected vulnerable to exploitation, abuse, violence, discrimination and stigmatization. Poverty inhibits the capacity of families and communities to care for children and other less privilege in the society. It also poses a threat by exacerbating the effects of diseases and armed conflicts.

The United Nations convention on poverty views poverty as” a human condition,

characterized by the sustained or chronic deprivation of the resources, capabilities, choices, security and power necessary for the enjoyment of an adequate standard of living and other civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights. Poverty encompasses deprivation of basic goods and services, it also includes deficiencies in other vital elements of human rights, such as rest and recreation and protection from violence and conflict that expand people‟s choices and enable them to fulfill their potential” (Gordon, 2003:27).

The notion of deprivation focuses attention on the circumstances that surround people, casting poverty as an attribute of the environment they live and grow in. People living in poverty do experience deprivation of the material, spiritual and emotional resources needed to survive, develop and thrive, leaving them unable to enjoy their rights, achieve their full potential or participate as full and equal members of society. In violating people‟s rights by denying them the essentials they need and deserve, we harm them and ourselves, permitting and encouraging the seeds of poverty, alienation and despair to take root.

Although, poverty is a global phenomenon threatening the survival of humanity, in Nigeria poverty has reached an alarming level and could be blamed on non-clear government social policies. The 2019 national statistics of poverty revealed that 70% of the population in

Nigeria live below poverty line.This measure is based on Absolute, Relative, Dollar/day and Food poverty national average measurement (National Bureau of Statistics, 2019:23).

Across the world, government plays a key impact in poverty alleviation. Generally speaking, poverty refers to the condition that exists when people lack the means to satisfy their basic needs such as nutrition, housing, clothing and other essentials of life. The increasing and high level of poverty in developing countries has serious implication for the world economy. Authors are divided as to the meaning of poverty and those areas that should be classified as poverty stricken. This is because, those that are classified as being poor in one area or country may be equivalent with those classified as averagely better-off in another place. However, Poverty generally means a state of being poor; that is when necessary needs are not met (World Bank, 2001: 68).

The problem of defining poverty is largely a cultural problem in determining what is or what should count as inadequate social functioning that are important or considered to be so; are being gainfully employed, maintaining a household and engaged in satisfying personal and social relationship. When such aspects of life are in jeopardy, a person or family may be considered to be in poverty. Indeed, the poor are usually regarded as those whose incomes are so far removed from the rest of the population that they cannot attain the mode of life considered acceptable in the society. No society can surely be flourishing and happy of which by far the greatest part of the numbers are poor and miserable.

Poverty can also be defined as a situation when the resources of individuals or families are inadequate to provide a socially acceptable standard of living. In other words, the individuals live below the conventional poverty line demarcating the poor from the non – poor. Poverty is also defined as “lack of basic necessities of life”. It is seen as a ravaging economic and social occurrence that manifest in the in- ability of the affected persons to acquire the basic necessities of means of self-actualization (Olori,2003:2).

Chambers (1995:173) also defined poverty as “the lack of physical necessities, asset and income”. Invariably poverty has both income and non – income dimension. According to World Bank report (2001:68), poverty is defined as the” inability of certain persons to attain a minimum standard of living”. Poverty manifests itself in different forms depending on the nature and extent of human deprivation. When the minimum level of consumption to sustain human existence becomes important in distinguishing the poor from the non- poor; the unemployed and low income earners come readily as the stratums of poor households. It is more likely that this group may not have the capacity to provide the basic needs like food, clothing and transportation for themselves and their teeming dependants. This class of people spread across geographical diversion, urban-rural and occupational categories.

Poverty in economic terms can be defined as the situation of low income or consumption.

2.2.3 Dimensions of Poverty in Nigeria

In order to facilitate cross- country consumption comparison, and aggregate various dimensions, poverty has been variously recognized as follows; absolute, relative, subjective, rural and urban poverty.

i. Absolute Poverty

Absolute poverty refers to the lack of minimum physical requirement of a person or a household for existence and is so extreme that those affected are no longer in a position to live a life worthy of human dignity. Absolute poverty exists when the lives of those concerned are impaired by physical or socio-cultural deficiencies.- {Adewoye, 1996:4}. Absolute poverty in other words, is a condition where a person or a group of persons are unable to satisfy their basic and elementary requirement for human survival in terms of food, clothing, shelter, health, transportation, education and recreation.

ii. Relative Poverty

Relative poverty is the condition of having fewer resources or less income than others within a society or country or compared to worldwide averages. Relative poverty does not necessarily mean that the persons concerned cannot live a life that is worthy of human dignity; it merely states that because of the distribution structures in a society certain economic subjects are disadvantaged to an unacceptable extent. Relative poverty therefore, is a comparative state of deprivation among individuals or groups. It is a vicious circle which keeps the poor in a state of destitution (Central Bank of Nigeria, 1999:40).

iii. Subjective Poverty

Subjective poverty refers to whether or not individuals or group feel they are poor. In other words, it is the perception of the citizenry on poverty. Subjective poverty is closely related to relative poverty since those who are defined as poor in terms of standards of the day will probably see and feel themselves to be poor (Abdullahi, 1993:6).

iv. Urban and Rural Poverty

Urban poverty refers to the urban slums, ghettos which are usually characterized by environmental degradation, inadequate welfare services, overcrowded accommodation and low level of education and capital resource. Rural poverty on the other hand, is characterized by poor material condition, high rate of illiteracy, lack of infrastructure, unemployment e.t.c (Abdullahi, 1993:6).

It is equally important to look at the concepts of poverty line, incidence of poverty and poverty gap with a view to provide a broad base of measurement for the analysis of the problem of this research. First of all, poverty line refers to the measure that divides the poor from non-poor, while incidence of poverty is the proportion of the population, for whom consumption falls below poverty line in a given population. Poverty gap on the other hand is the depth of poverty or distance between the income of the average poor and the poverty line. It is the extent to which the income of the poor lie below the poverty line.

2.2.6 Delinquent Behaviour

Delinquency is a growing problem across the globe and Nigeria is not an exceptional. This prompted the researcher to beam his search light on finding the influence of parenting styles and peer pressure on delinquent behaviours. So, delinquency as relayed by Walter (2005) is a person usually young, who behaves in a way that is illegal or unacceptable to most people. Also, delinquency is defined as a major or minor law breaking by youth under the age of 18 (Berber, 2002) Law breaking such as; murder, rape, robbery, pick pocket, examination malpractices, thuggery, smoke, alcohol intake, destruction of properties, rioting, pickpocket and so on.

Involvement of adolescents in delinquent activities is on the increase in our society in the last few years. These crimes range from minor killing perpetrated by teens. For example, the recent killing of four students in university of Port Harcourt in Rivers State and that of federal polytechnics Yola in Adamawa State. The suspects paraded on the media were mostly young adolescent as reported by Ojiabor & Sanni (2012). A research carried out by Turner (2011) corroborated the above assertion when they reported that delinquent behaviour rose from 367 to 538 per 100, 000 adolescent between 1986 and 1996. They claimed that most of the suspects arrested in 1996 were adolescents and are arrested previously for crimes like; theft, shoplifting, rioting, robbery and extortion. Eke (2004) note that there are two main categories of delinquent behaviours Nigerian adolescents engaged in, criminal and status offence. The criminal offenses include stealing, rape, drug offences, murder, burglary, pick pocket and armed robbery. However, status offence includes; running away from home, truancy, lie, smoke, alcohol intake among others.

Bingham, Shope and Rachunathan (2006) identified a type of delinquent behaviour as; conventional behaviour which are encouraged by the society. Onyehalu (2003) asserted that the existence of stable and normal societies is based on acceptable ethical principles, norms and healthy values. Okorodudu & Okorodudu (2003) referred to the norms and values as desirable behaviours while Onyehalu (2003).claims that any departure from the accepted norms by people who are not yet adult is delinquency. However, Bingham et.al (2006) refers to behaviours which are socially prohibited as delinquent behaviour. Any behaviour that falls short of societal norms, values, beliefs and expectations are undesirable behaviours. Okorodudu & Okorodudu (2003) in their research identified the following as deviant behaviours exhibition frequently and persistently in the class room; working out on the teacher, noise making, sleeping in class, pinching, aggression, vandalism, lies, truancy, cheating in examinations, immorality, alcoholism, use of drugs, cultism and so on. Boroffice (2003) believes that negative factors such as biological, e. g big head, dwarf or albinism, and social view of self, attitudes, beliefs, sense of his future are some of the factors that predispose adolescents to unhealthy behaviors.

The psychological tensions in adolescents away from home or from school have the potentials of exposing them to negative association, (that is peer group). (Okorodudu & Omoni, 2005). These scholars also observed that adolescent may exhibit suicidal tendencies, Criminal behaviour, vandalism, destruction of public property, maiming and murder of parents and violence against the large society. Criminal behaviour is noted by Ekoja & Adole (2008) as gang delinquency. These gangs delinquent are group of youth that exhibit criminal behavior. Several researches done on factors that precipitated delinquency among adolescents include that of Okorodudu & Okorodudu, (2003); Eke, (2004) when they stressed that adolescence is a period of stress and storm and the period is characterized by rebelliousness. This is caused by non-conducive environment such as; peer influence, drug abuse, poverty at home among others.

Eke, (2004) further buttressed that causes of delinquent behaviour tend to find theoretical explanations in the interaction between biological, environmental and social factors. She believed that the biological or genetic make-up of individuals can cause adolescents ‘engagement in delinquent activities. Chromosomal abnormalities in adolescents may predispose them to anti-social behaviours. The Nigerian government had overtime devised and employed several measures aimed at curbing delinquent behaviour in our society but to no avail. As it still witness pockets of such behaviours in our society. The establishment and administration of juvenile justice; promulgation of juvenile laws and courts, establishment of remand homes, establishment of security and law enforcement agency to have proved the effort of government to minimize these negative behaviors. Many researchers agree that the foundation of delinquent behaviors is rooted in the kind of home the adolescent is brought up (Odebunmi, 2007, Otuadah, 2008, Okpako 2004, Utti 2006).They also argued that the basis for good behavior, orientation good adolescents and attitude development is founded on positive parenting. Therefore, parents should be blamed and be made to take responsibility for the misfortune that befalls the adolescents.

2.3 Poverty and Criminal behavior Nexus in Nigeria

The scourge of poverty goes beyond mere measurement of a household‟s expenditure or welfare. Poverty has many dimensions and may include inadequate access to government utilities and services, environmental issues, poor infrastructure, illiteracy and ignorance, poor health, insecurity, social and political exclusion. In urban areas, the burden of demand of services has effects on school enrolment, access to primary health care, growth of unsanitary urban slums e.t.c. Also in rural areas, poverty manifests itself more in the agricultural sector and food security. For any meaningful economic growth and poverty reduction, there is the need to enhance and improve access to social services, including health and education (National Bureau of Statistics, 2012:3)

Although poverty is a global phenomenon threatening the survival of humanity, the incidence of poverty in Sokoto State, Nigeria has reached an alarming level and is blamed on non-clear government social policies. Indeed, the inability of successive governments to streamline and harness the enormous potentials for improved service delivery in all the existing structures of poverty eradication has resulted into persistent poverty. Sadly, Criminals have exploited the quest for better and alternative source of survival and desire for material wealth at all costand the vantage position of Sokoto as a gate-way to neighbouring countries enroute Europe, Asia and other parts of the world perceived to be „greener pasture‟ to introduce criminal behavior as a new dimension of wealth creation into the psyche of the people.

It is important to stress here that the precarious effects of poor policy implementation by past governments at all levels, corruption and misappropriation of public funds, prolonged military rule in the country, neglect of rural sector and it attendant result of food insecurity has led to the collapse of the Nigerian national economy. This untold hardship has forced a large number of families in Nigeria into illegal means of survival (Adepoju, 1995:11).

More-so, the consequences of the implementation of the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) featuring inflation, depreciation of the naira, low installed capacity performance of industries, retirement, unemployment, have been the main causes of the rapid growth and indeed the preponderance of informal sector activities which include such activities as drug and criminal behavior (Oloruntimehin,2000:8).

Accordingly, the reality of the Nigerian state as a state in economic and political comatose, where millions of the youths see migration out of the country as a solution to their economic misfortunes is a subject of concern; just as an army of jobless people take to crime such as drug and criminal behavior. Due to the collapse of certain structures such as the economic structure, to address poverty, welfare, a system to address unemployment, low wages and salaries and attendant result of criminal behavior made Nigeria to acquire a reputation of being the leading African country in criminal behavior. Nigeria is a country of origin, transit and destination for criminal behavior (Falola, 1999:30).

The phenomenon criminal behavior has considerably increased throughout the world and most especially in Nigeria. Generally speaking, criminal behavior conditions in most African countries have greatly deteriorated, particularly during the last few decades. Real disposable income have declined steeply, malnutrition rates have risen sharply, food production has hardly kept pace with population growth and the quality and quantity of health and education services have also deteriorated(Ogwumike,2003:12).

As in most developing countries, poverty has been the remote cause of almost all the social ills in the country. Inspite of her abundant human and material resources, Nigeria has been classified as one of the poorest countries with high suffering indices (Chika 2004:16).

In the few decades, poverty has become pervasive in Nigeria. During the same period, the country has slipped from a position of a buoyant and upcoming economy to rank according to the British Department forInternational Development (DFID) among the poorest 20 countries in the world (Ayua, 2001:16). Placing Sokoto State, Nigeria within the national poverty context, it is possible to determine the extent of poverty and how much of problem it poses for the State and the country at large. Some people who are threatened by poverty often engaged in various illegal activities like armed robbery and illegal drug trade and other criminal activities such as criminal behavior in order to sustain themselves.

In line with the various concept and definition of poverty, Anyanwu (1997:14) categorized the following as poor especially within Nigerian context.

Households or individuals below the poverty line and whose incomes are insufficient to provide for their basic needs.

Households or individuals lacking access to basic services, political contract and other forms of support.

People in isolated rural areas who lack essential infrastructures.

Female headed households whose nutritional needs are not being met adequately.

Persons who have lost their jobs and those who are unable to find employment as a result of economic reforms such as the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) and those who are in danger of becoming „new poor‟ and

Ethnic minorities, who are marginalized, deprived and persecuted economically, socially, culturally and politically.

Criminal behavior has been increasingly attributed to incidence of poverty worsened by the neo – imperialist capitalist pattern of development culture which maximizes individual profiteering and well-being above communal well-being. This information is relevant in the conduct of this research which questions the veracity in the systemic connection between poverty and criminal behavior inNigeria.

Criminal behavior as articulated by the United Nations (UN) protocol to prevent, suppress and punish crime in persons especially women and children, UNGASS (2000) defines criminal behavior as:

The stealment, transportation, transfer and harboring or receipt of persons by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the given or receiving of payment, of benefit to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person for the purpose of exploitation.

Exploitation shall include at a minimum the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, stealing or practice similar to stealing. Consent of the crime victims becomes irrelevant within the context of this definition. The protocol assumes that adults and children of both sexes can become crime victims of criminal behavior. It also postulates that individuals free will of crime victims must have been manipulated, constrained, subdued in some manner to allow for exploitation.

Criminal behavior abounds in the form of crime for theft and extortion (NAPTIP, 2005:22).