An empirical investigation of court users’ encounters with bribery, judicial extortion and corruption victimisation in Lagos State

This article examines the problem of corruption in the judicial system of postcolonial Nigeria using Lagos State Judiciary as a case study. The study is informed by the fact that, despite several decades of justice sector reforms in the country, some judges and court staff are still found culpable o...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Crime, law, and social change law, and social change, 2021-03, Vol.75 (2), p.141-163
Main Authors: Adisa, Waziri B., Alabi, Tunde A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Bribery
Case studies
Corruption
Court hearings & proceedings
Courts
Criminal justice
Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure Law
Criminology and Criminal Justice
Data collection
Extortion
Judges & magistrates
Judiciary
Law and Criminolgy
Legal system
Offenses
Political Science
Postcolonialism
Prosecutions
Quantitative analysis
Reforms
Social Sciences
State court decisions
State courts
Victimization
Vulnerability
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Summary:This article examines the problem of corruption in the judicial system of postcolonial Nigeria using Lagos State Judiciary as a case study. The study is informed by the fact that, despite several decades of justice sector reforms in the country, some judges and court staff are still found culpable of abuse of the oath of their office. The study adopted direct encounters of court users to measure judicial corruption using a total sample of 827 litigants selected across the High and Magistrate Courts in Lagos State. The quantitative method of data collection was adopted. The study found that regularity at the court, type of court case, and category of litigant were significant predictors of vulnerability to judicial extortion, bribery and corruption victimisation in the court. Specifically, the study found that litigants with criminal cases were three times more likely to be asked for bribes and denied justice than those with civil cases. The implication of these findings for justice sector reform in Nigeria is that, the government, National Judicial Council and State Judicial Commission must deliberately block avenues and opportunities for bribery in criminal prosecution so as to protect the rights of the less privileged in the justice system.
ISSN:0925-4994
1573-0751
DOI:10.1007/s10611-020-09931-0