SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEPRIVATION, FAMILY INSTABILITY AND PERCEIVED YOUTH CRIMINAL BEHAVIOUR IN IKERE-EKITI, NIGERIA: A COMMUNITY SURVEY

Abstract

Youth criminal behaviour is often discussed as an individual moral failure, although evidence increasingly locates it within the interaction of socioeconomic hardship, family relationships, schools, peer networks and neighbourhood conditions. This study examined residents’ perceptions of socioeconomic deprivation, family instability and youth criminal behaviour in Ikere-Ekiti, Ekiti State, Nigeria. A cross-sectional descriptive survey was conducted among adult residents and opinion leaders. One hundred questionnaires were administered through stratification across community areas, followed by simple-random and availability procedures where access conditions required them; 92 usable copies were returned, yielding a 92% response rate. Data were analysed with frequencies, percentages and weighted means. The revised analysis explicitly considers socioeconomic deprivation alongside family instability and expands the interpretation of youth criminal behaviour beyond the four manifestations directly measured in the questionnaire. Among the measured manifestations, drug-related conduct attracted the strongest agreement (94.6%; M = 3.57), followed by disorderly conduct (79.3%; M = 3.10), kidnapping (78.3%; M = 2.89) and vandalism (75.0%; M = 3.09). Family-related responses showed that inadequate nurturing and emotional support were considered especially damaging (91.3%; M = 3.79). Indicators linked to deprivation were also salient in prevention preferences: 87.0% supported food-security assistance and 79.3% supported improved educational opportunities. Nigerian scholarship further identifies unemployment, inadequate basic needs, income inequality, substance abuse, theft, cybercrime, cultism, robbery and violent conduct as important dimensions of youth deviance, although these additional forms were not separately quantified in the present instrument. The findings indicate that residents understand youth offending as a product of interconnected material, relational and community conditions rather than deprivation or family structure alone. The study recommends coordinated social protection, family counselling, school-retention initiatives, vocational support, structured youth activities and intelligence-led policing. Because the evidence is perception-based and cross-sectional, it should be interpreted as local association rather than proof of causation.