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DRUG ABUSE AND ITS INFLUENCE ON YOUTH INVOLVEMENT IN VIOLENT CRIMES IN EDO STATE.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study
The relationship between substance abuse and violent crime constitutes one of the most extensively studied linkages in criminology, public health, and social policy. A robust global empirical literature has established that alcohol and illicit drug use significantly elevate the probability of violent behaviour through pharmacological, economic-compulsive, and systemic pathways (Goldstein, 1985; White & Gorman, 2000). Among young persons whose developing prefrontal cortex renders them particularly vulnerable to the disinhibiting and impulse-control-compromising effects of psychoactive substances, the consequences of drug abuse for violent offending are especially pronounced (Verdejo-García et al., 2008; Kalivas & Volkow, 2005). In sub-Saharan Africa, the intersection of widespread youth unemployment, educational failure, social marginalisation, and the proliferating availability of cheap illicit substances has produced conditions in which drug abuse and youth violence are increasingly co-occurring social problems (Parry et al., 2009; Peltzer & Ramlagan, 2010).
Edo State, located in the South-South geopolitical zone of Nigeria, has emerged as one of the states most acutely affected by the co-occurring epidemics of youth drug abuse and violent crime. The state is characterised by a well-documented history of organised criminal networks, particularly those involved in international human trafficking, cybercrime (commonly referred to as “Yahoo-Yahoo”), and ritual-related crimes that have actively recruited economically marginalised youths, normalised criminal activity as a pathway to material success, and fostered drug use as a means of psychological conditioning and social bonding within criminal groups (Ikeji & Uwalaka, 2019; Aghedo, 2014). The city of Benin, the state capital, has recorded escalating rates of violent crime, including armed robbery, culpable homicide, cult-related violence, and domestic violence, many of which are linked in police and civil society reports to the activities of drug-using youth gangs and cult groups (Akpomuvie & Akpobasa, 2021; Igwe, 2016).
Illicit drug use among Nigerian youth has reached alarming proportions. The UNODC-NBS (2018) National Drug Survey found that approximately 14.4 percent of Nigerians between the ages of 15 and 64 had used at least one illicit drug in the past year, with cannabis, tramadol, cough syrups with codeine, and opioids representing the most commonly abused substances. Among youth specifically, tranquiliser and opioid misuse has escalated dramatically, driven in part by the widespread availability of pharmaceutical drugs diverted from legitimate supply chains (Kehinde et al., 2021; Atilola et al., 2018). In Edo State, the prevalence of poly-drug use the concurrent use of multiple substances including alcohol, cannabis, tramadol, and heroin among young persons aged 15–29 has been documented in several community-based studies, with associated elevations in aggression, risk-taking behaviour, and violent offending (Ikeji & Uwalaka, 2019; Okonofua et al., 2020).
The theoretical framework of Paul Goldstein’s (1985) tripartite model of drug-related violence provides the primary conceptual lens for this study. The model distinguishes three pathways through which drug use produces violence: (1) the psychopharmacological pathway, in which drug-induced disinhibition, paranoia, or altered affect leads directly to violent behaviour; (2) the economic-compulsive pathway, in which the need to finance expensive drug habits drives instrumental violent crime such as robbery; and (3) the systemic pathway, in which violence arises from the organisation and enforcement norms of illicit drug markets themselves territorial disputes, debt collection, and retaliatory violence. Each of these pathways is empirically relevant to the Edo State context and will be examined through the study’s findings (White & Gorman, 2000; Boles & Miotto, 2003).
The Edo State Government and federal law enforcement agencies have initiated multiple responses to the youth drug abuse and violent crime nexus, including NDLEA interdiction operations, the establishment of drug rehabilitation centres, and community policing initiatives. However, these responses have been characterised as fragmented, under-resourced, and inadequately grounded in empirical understanding of the specific mechanisms through which drug abuse drives youth violence in the state (Adepoju, 2020; Nigerian Correctional Service, 2021). The empirical examination of this relationship is therefore both a scholarly and policy imperative.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
Despite the apparent co-occurrence of youth drug abuse and violent crime in Edo State, as documented in police arrest records, civil society reports, and journalistic accounts, no systematic empirical study has examined the specific pathways through which drug abuse influences youth involvement in violent crimes in this context. Without this evidence, prevention and intervention programmes cannot be adequately calibrated to address the actual mechanisms driving drug-related youth violence in Edo State. The present study addresses this critical gap.
1.3 Research Questions
i. What types and patterns of drug abuse are prevalent among youth involved in violent crimes in Edo State?
ii. Through which specific pathways psychopharmacological, economic-compulsive, or systemic does drug abuse influence youth violent offending in the state?
iii. What socioeconomic and environmental factors mediate the relationship between drug abuse and youth violent crime in Edo State?
iv. What are the institutional responses to drug-related youth violence in Edo State, and how effective are they?
v. What evidence-based prevention, treatment, and enforcement recommendations emerge from the study findings?
1.4 Objectives of the Study
i. To identify the types, patterns, and prevalence of drug abuse among youth involved in violent crimes in Edo State.
ii. To examine the pathways through which drug abuse influences youth violent offending, using Goldstein’s tripartite framework.
iii. To analyse the mediating roles of socioeconomic marginalisation, peer influence, and neighbourhood factors.
iv. To evaluate existing institutional responses to drug-related youth violence in Edo State.
v. To recommend evidence-based, integrated prevention, treatment, and criminal justice responses.
1.5 Significance of the Study
The study makes theoretical contributions by testing Goldstein’s tripartite model in the Nigerian context and assessing the relative salience of pharmacological, economic, and systemic drug violence pathways in an African urban setting. Empirically, it provides the first systematically gathered quantitative and qualitative data on drug abuse and youth violence linkages specific to Edo State. Practically, the findings will equip the Edo State Government, NDLEA, the Nigeria Police Force, rehabilitation centres, schools, and community organisations with an evidence base for designing targeted prevention, treatment, and enforcement interventions that address the specific mechanisms driving drug-related youth violence in the state.
1.6 Scope and Limitations
The study is geographically delimited to Edo State and focuses on youth between the ages of 15 and 29 years who have been involved in or arrested for violent offences, including armed robbery, assault, cultism-related violence, and culpable homicide. The temporal scope is 2016–2024. The study examines the influence of drug abuse on violent crime and does not address drug-related non-violent offences, drug addiction treatment outcomes, or drug policy reform at the federal level.
1.7 Definition of Key Terms
Drug Abuse: The use of psychoactive substances including illicit drugs, alcohol, and misused pharmaceuticals in a manner that is hazardous, harmful, or dependent, as defined by the World Health Organization.
Violent Crime: Offences involving the use or threatened use of physical force against another person, including armed robbery, assault, homicide, and cult-related violence.
Psychopharmacological Violence: Violence directly caused by the intoxicating, disinhibiting, or psychosis-inducing effects of a substance on the perpetrator or victim.
Economic-Compulsive Violence: Violence committed as an instrumental means of acquiring money to purchase drugs.
Systemic Violence: Violence arising from the normative structure of drug markets territorial enforcement, debt collection, product adulteration, and retaliatory aggression.
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