NIGERIAN RESIDENTS AND POLICE OFFICERS

Nigerian Residents and Police Officers: Methodology

Nigerian Residents and Police Officers

Choosen Methodology

1. Methodology Surveys

Method of Data Collection And Analysis

This study investigates the root causes and patterns of police-citizen violence in Nigeria. It examines the use of violence by the police against citizens as well as the use of violence against the police by citizens. The methods adopted for the collection and analysis of the study are described below.

Population and Sample

The survey method was adopted as the principal method for the study. The two populations for the study are the police and the public. The public population was defined to include the prison inmates. In order to obtain a fairly representative perspective from the populations, data were collected from the public in fourteen of the country's thirty-six states, grouped into six geo-political zones. Data from the prison inmates were obtained from three prisons. The literature on police-citizen violence has identified several factors that explain police -citizen contacts and conflicts. Such factors include historical, political, legal, economic and organisational environments, as well as socio-biographical factors like age, sex, education and occupation. The questionnaire was designed to capture the relationships between these socio-biographical variables and police-citizen contacts. For a wider representation of respondents from diverse social background, a quota sample method was adopted for the administration of questionnaires among the public (excluding prison inmates) as follows: fifty-five questionnaires were distributed in each of the following fourteen-states in the six geo-political zones.

North-Central:

Kwara

Plateau

2. North-Eastern

Adamawa

Borno

3. North-Western

Jigawa

Kaduna

Sokoto

4. South -Eastern

Anambra

Imo

28

5. South-South

Akwa Ibom

Edo

Rivers

6. South-Western

Lagos

Ondo

General Public Sample

The following quota was assigned to the groups, within the general population, identified below:

A) Commercial drivers/motor park touts (11)

B) Market women (5)

C) students (15)

D) human rights activists and lawyers (10)

E) professionals and middle socio-economic status (14)

Fifty-five questionnaires were therefore distributed to these groups in each of the fourteen states. A total of 670 questionnaires were distributed and 637 completed questionnaires were returned by these groups in the selected fourteen states of the federation.

Prison Inmates Sample

A prison was selected, for the administration of questionnaires to inmates, in each of the three old regions of the country - East, North and West. The three prisons are located in Owerri, Kaduna and Lagos. Eighty (80) questionnaires were administered in each of the prisons. Out of a total of 240 questionnaires that were distributed, 197 completed questionnaires were returned.

Police Sample

Two hundred and ten questionnaires were distributed to the police across the fourteen states. A total of 159 questionnaires were completed and returned. The primary data for the study were therefore obtained from 993 questionnaires as well as responses from in-depth interviews with members of the public and police personnel. Official statistics and documents, and academic literature supplemented the primary data.' The sampling procedure used was an admixture of quota, purposive and convenience methods. A quota was allocated to groups that were purposively selected, and respondents were picked on the basis of convenience or availability. These methods were used because they are useful for generating required data at relatively lower costs than ...