Future Directions

The socio-ecological model predicts that factors related to the context of the neighbourhood in which victims live will influence the crime reporting behaviour of individual victims (Goudriaan, 2006). It is in the light of this consideration that in this study, the effects of public confidence in police effectiveness on crime reporting is assumed to be important. Thus, in traditional justice systems, victims of crime have customarily expected support from their families, villages or ethnic groups. The informal social network was there to cushion the impact

73 of victimisation on victims and accelerate their recovery. Very critical is this same network in resolving conflict and seeing to it that reconciliatory decisions were fairly but firmly implemented.

Within this context, it is taken for granted that the victim (and his or her kin), the victimiser (and his or her kin) and the entire social group will share the burden of dealing with the crime. In many parts of the world, with the increasing complexity of society and the evolution of systems of justice, the State has gradually assumed a dominant role in the justice process. Specific forms of behaviour are defined by the State as crimes, which have come to be seen more as crimes against the State than violations of the individual victim‟s fundamental human rights. The State ultimately took over the responsibility for the investigation of the offence, the prosecution of the suspect, adjudication and enforcement of the sentencing decision (United Nations Office for Drug Control and Prevention, 1999).

Therefore, just as journalists must strive to place criminal acts in context even when, for example, many Americans enjoy an almost guilty pleasure from watching and reading sensationalized stories of murder and mayhem, crime victims and witnesses must place crime reporting in context. Irresponsible crime reporting can end up exacerbating crime problems which their reporting is naturally intended to uncover and assist the criminal justice system to resolve. Except crime reporters put a commitment to place crime reports in a societal context, it may be dangerous than non-reporting. As a result, crime reporting involves some discreet thoughts so that victims of such crimes may not be scared to come forward for fear of being publicly stigmatised (Krajicek, 1998).

The victim was afforded fewer opportunities for direct participation. Although it was often the victim who reported the offence to the authorities, subsequent decisions came to be

74 made more with the interests of the State and the community in mind than those of the victim.

This is not to say that the historical development has been a simple one of gradual diminution of the status of the victim. Traditional justice systems have not invariably been ideal from the point of view of the victim; mobilization of the community against the aggressor depended to a large extent on the subsisting power relations and the side of it to which the offender belongs.

Moreover, modern society has sought to provide extended protection to the victim through its criminal laws and systems of social security (United Nations Office for Drug Control and Prevention, 1999), regrettably, these resources have not received widespread support in most developing societies of the world.

In addition, the different criminal justice systems and other forms of justice have not all followed an identical path of development. In some present-day systems, such as those of Islamic countries and several European countries, the victim plays a key role throughout the criminal justice process. Nonetheless, by the middle of the present century, in many societies, the victim could aptly be termed the forgotten person in the administration of justice. Considerable attention had quite justifiably been paid to ensuring due process for the defendant, who is, after all, threatened with State-imposed punishment, and should, therefore, be afforded every possibility of establishing his or her innocence, and/or presenting other considerations in his or her defence.

This degree of attention has been too lopsided. It had not been adequately put behind the victim.

The State was assumed to be representing the interests of the victim and accordingly no need was perceived for direct victim involvement in the proceedings (United Nations Office for Drug Control and Prevention, 1999).

Since the early studies in the 1940s by Benjamin Mendelsohn and Hans von Hentig, increasing attention has been turned to the problems faced by victims, both in society in general

75 and in their interaction with the criminal justice system in particular. Many victims face insensitive treatment by the police, prosecutors and court officials, thus causing a second injury.

This applies particularly to certain especially vulnerable categories of victims. Even if the offender is apprehended and brought to trial, the experience of victims in many jurisdictions is that they have been marginalized and do not have the opportunity to express their views and concerns in the criminal justice process or in human rights courts or international tribunals.

Many systems do not allow the victim to present his or her civil claim in conjunction with criminal proceedings. Even if the offender is convicted, the sanctions (often a fine, probation or imprisonment) have little relevance to the victim, other than affording the satisfaction of seeing the offender punished (United Nations Office for Drug Control and Prevention, 1999). The offender did not directly injure the state. It is the victim that is the direct bearer of the pains of crime.

As earlier noted, Lagos has embarked on urban renewal and upgrade projects in recent times, probably to meet up its anticipated megacity status. While in some striking ways, these structural reforms have given pleasant facelift to the physical outlook of the environment, they also have undesirably blocked the destinies of some community members. The implications of the upgrade for criminal victimisation, the levels of concern about and responses to the impact of crimes cannot be ignored. In the urban transformation agenda of Fashola‟s administration in Lagos, crime control received an impressive boost in terms of generous equipment donation to and encouragement of the police. Given the terrifying crime rates and widespread socio–political challenges, crime reporting to the police remains a major concern for contemporary criminal justice system.

76 Faced with rising crime problem and the changing social contexts, crime reporting by individual victims has become a major worry constituting a genuine challenge to the Lagos Police Command as well as other criminal justice agencies. In sum, rising levels of and growing concern about crime have been accompanied by a withering away of the extensive involvement of victims in Lagos. The factors that affect victims‟ crime reporting practices to the police in Lagos still largely remain unknown. This study therefore examined the extent to which patterns of crime reporting observed in Western research are similar to or different from those that characterise the previously unexplored Lagos‟ setting. It therefore looked at the correlates of crime reporting practices among victims in Lagos, Nigeria.