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Abstract

Crime of the powerful is a humongous social problem with the potential to ravage development and threaten the corporate existence of nation states. The case of contemporary Nigeria is the focal point of analysis in this paper. The objective of the paper, therefore, is to investigate the menace in Nigeria from an integrated theoretical perspective. The methodology was exploratory survey and review of literature which were content analyzed. The theoretical framework is a kind of Modified Multiple Reinforcing Social Forces Theory. Findings indicate that, beside its high prevalence rate, elite criminality in the various forms of corruption, property and environmental crimes, political crimes, sponsorship of terrorism and banditry and similar others, are pervasive in contemporary Nigeria. Major causes of this menace include wickedness, acute greed for materialism and weak institutional controls. The study further revealed that elite criminality fosters both direct and indirect consequences such as economic, environmental and health costs, poor infrastructure, weakened democratic and judicial institutions, human right abuses and insecurity. It also found that, though Nigeria has extant frameworks to curb crimes of the powerful, impediments such as lack of political will on the part of the leaders, selected prosecutions, complex anti-graft laws, absence of national consciousness against elite criminality and corrupt criminal justice administration, prevent the anti-graft agencies from achieving their set objectives. The policy implications are that there is an urgent need to re-strategize all anti-graft frameworks by establishing a single anti-graft Federal Agency to enforce the prohibitions and administer the provisions of these extant laws. Adopting the Regulatory-Collective Efficacy-Mix Approach may drastically reduce elite criminality in Nigeria.

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