Abstract

One of the greatest challenges human society have faced over the years is crime and delinquency. Crime has been a threat to peace and hope of social reproduction of the society. Many scholars have averred at sundry times and jurisdictions that crime in society is as old as man on earth. For instance, it has been argued that crime and criminality were noticeable human trait in social relation from the creation of man through the Babylonian, Persian, Grecian, and Egyptian epochs, as histories of efforts to check crime at these epochs were documented in extant literature (Ugwuoke, 2015). Crime is a social vice that affects people from different socio-cultural backgrounds in different ways. This has necessitated different perceptions, definitions and content of crime in society. Although there is no agreement among criminologists, sociologists and other scholars of society about an acceptable definition, nature and content of crime across jurisdictions (Reid, 1997; Ugwuoke, 2015), such discrepancies hardly exist among them about the existence, prevalence and abhorrence of majority of citizens for crime in any human society. The reason for this is not farfetched, crime and delinquent behaviours are destructive and anti-development, since it is only when there is peace that people can go about their legitimate duties without fear, and events can more readily be predicted (Nwolise, 2005).

Furthermore, crime engenders fear among the citizens. The danger in fear generated by crime in society is succinctly captured by Conklin (2007:326) thus: