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WOMEN AND CRIME: A STUDY OF FEMALE INVOLVEMENT IN CYBERCRIME IN ABUJA, FCT

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the Study

The production of feminist criminological criticism of the 1970s has witnessed the development of a radical theoretical shift in the scholarly study of women and crime by challenging the male-centrist orientation of the dominant criminological theory and practise. Since Adler coined his provocative liberation hypothesis to the pathways theory by Chesney-Lind, the feminist theorists have established that female offending is not an incidental add-on to the analysis of male offending but rather a social phenomenon whose theoretical and empirical exploration requires special focus. The twenty first century has seen cybercrime as a deviant method of financial benefit spread in numerous ways, it has offered new opportunities of female deviance, opportunities that were not well suited in traditional criminological paradigms. The introduction of women to the field of cybercrime, in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory, a city characterised by extremely high educational attainment rates, population density of digital infrastructure, high levels of economic inequality, and a rapidly growing population of young women stepping into narrow legitimate economic opportunities, is a criminologically relevant phenomenon.

The scope of cybercrime in Nigeria and the disproportionately adverse effect that the issue has on the international image of the country has been widely reported. In 2022, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) sentenced 2,847 people related to cyber-related crimes, and financial fraud cases were more than 70 percent (Bamidele, 2023). Nigerian youths have faced several cybercrime cases in federal high court Abuja, such as cases of identity fraud, romance, and business email compromise (Eboibi & Ogorugba, 2023). Whereas the well-known and scholarly imagination of Nigerian cybercrime revolves around the archetype of the so-called Yahoo Boy, a young man studying at, or dropped out of, a university and committing internet fraud, recent arrest statistics and case prosecutions indicate an increasing number of women suspects and convicts, whose motives, opportunities, and functions are poorly explained.

In a review of Twitter discussion of the Nigerian cybercrime condition published by Heliyon, Lazarus, Button, and Adogame (2022) identified a NorthSouth divide in the geography of cybercrime commission and established that the general discourse on cybercrime perpetration reproduces and reinforces gendered notions about perpetration. Most importantly to this research, a study by Aborisade (2023), a research in the journal Deviant Behaviour, has analysed the dispositions of parents to the involvement of their children in cybercrime, capturing how in some family situations, the social support and moral rationalism of cybercrime participation between sons and daughters are supported. The conclusion on the implications of studying female entry into cybercrime is important: social inhibitions to participation in cybercrime may be less strong among young women than it was among previous generations in the household context where cybercrime has become accepted as a survival tactic.

The theoretical bases of the participation of female cybercrime are based on various traditions. The social Learning Theory, which is linked to Ronald Akers and which scholars like Adejoh, Alabi, Adisa, and Emezie (2019) in their article on the phenomenon of the so-called Yahoo Boys in Lagos apply to explain cybercrime, is that delinquent behaviour – and cybercrime, in particular – learns by means of differential association with coevals who have positive definitions of criminal behaviour and who model criminal behaviours. This scheme can be directly applied to the female cybercrime in Abuja where social networks of romantic partners, family members, and female peer groups could be paths of entry into digital malpractices. Another theory is the General Strain Theory (Agnew, 1992), according to which blocked legitimate opportunities, goal blockage, and relative deprivation are the causes of the negative affect, which drives the criminal behaviour, but all these elements are acutely experienced by young educated women in Abuja when they face structural barriers to commensurate employment.

The study of cybercriminals who have been convicted in Nigeria has brought about the tendencies that can be directly applied as far as the involvement of women is concerned. In the investigation conducted by Lazarus and co-authors (2024) and thirty-sixteen members of online romance fraud offenders, it was found that there is a strong geographic concentration of offenders in Southern Nigeria, and patterns of attacks are recorded, which reflect social networks, which implies that cybercrime is not an individual behaviour but a socialised phenomenon. In a different study, Lusthaus, Holt, Levi, Kleemans, Leukfeldt, and Rutger Leukfeldt (2025) focusing on how the networks of cybercriminals have evolved in Europe found a more sophisticated and transnational nature of their activities, where female participants frequently had to act as money mules, romance scam “operators,” and network connectors.

The high population density of government employees, diplomats, corporate workers, and foreign aid NGO employees, in the Abuja context specifically, makes romance scams and business email compromise a target-rich environment of cybercrime of which the social engineering and relationship management skills are essential to success, and where women might have a comparative advantage. The statutory and institutional framework to deal with cybercrime in Abuja is outlined in the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc.) Act 2015 and under the mandate of the EFCC, but studies by Eboibi and Ogorugba (2023) have criticised the current enforcement paradigm as focusing on symptoms and not the causes, and Adebanjo (2022) has addressed specifically the insufficiency of legal responses to gender-based aspects of cybercrime in Nigeria.

This paper involves a quantitative investigation of female participation in cybercrime in Abuja, FCT, based on the latest empirical research and subjecting a phenomenon so far generally approached in gender-neutral discourses to feminist criminological theories.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

The statement provides a concise overview of an imbalance that has existed in the academic and practical study of cybercrime in Nigeria. Male peril-takers, historically known as Yahoo Boys, have dominated the news and scholarly literature on romance scams, business email compromise, phishing, and, most recently, sextortion and victims of minors. This imbalance is supported by enforcement statistics reported by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC): extensive raids (e.g. hundreds of arrested individuals in Lagos) usually document disastrous numbers of men (e.g. 25 women out of 120 suspects in one operation in Lagos in 2025), and women are found in lower proportions (e.g. 25 women of 120 suspects in that operation). However, there is an increasing evidence of an increased female involvement, usually in less high profile or enabling roles: social engineering to capitalise on the trust in romance scams, money mules, account management or even recruiting networks. Motivations are often connected to gendered economic issues: extreme financial strain, familial demands, peer pressure at campuses, or an entry into relationships with male offenders as opposed to an individual initiation.

Nevertheless, the serious criminological research on the female channels is still scarce and disjointed. Current research (say, that of female undergraduates in Ibadan, Osun, Ekiti, or Lagos) discusses such positions and motivation as economic survival or gender stereotypes exploitation, but does not often single out the setting of Abuja. Being the administrative and diplomatic centre of Nigeria, Abuja boasts a unique combination of university rates, wealth among residents, high cost of living which breeds desperation, high access to broadband and technology close to government buildings, and cosmopolitan blend which draws people to the city, regardless of their states of residence. These conditions provide a fertile business space of advanced, less of a street-level cyber activity, like an international hotel review scam or a foreign-connected fraud, as demonstrated by 2025 Abuja-based arrests of Nigerians and Chinese nationals, compared to southern business centres such as Lagos or Benin City, where Yahoo Academies and ritualistic aspects of the fraud (Yahoo Plus) are more recorded. The juxtaposition of a judiciary to EFCC headquarters and federal courts can also have an effect on prosecution tendencies such that female cases could be handled differently (such as diversion or reduced scrutiny because of their perceived subordinate status). A systematic mapping of these Abuja-specific dynamics in relation to women offenders (their entry points, intersectional vulnerabilities (class, migration, education), experiences in the justice system) has not been previously carried out in a systematic manner, which is why the proposed focused examination can be considered truly groundbreaking.

The research addresses the invisibility of this group directly by basing its study on the feminist criminological theory, which prefigures the influence of the patriarchy, economic marginalisation, and relations on offending among women, as well as incorporating the current empirical evidence with primary data (views of the community, the interviews of the offenders, or views of the actors of justice) in Abuja. It goes over stereotypes to show subtle reality bound contexts.

The research has a high potential on a variety of levels within a landscape where enforcement of cybercrime is becoming more aggressive (such as record raids in 20242025 and transnational operations like the one led by the FBI Operation Artemis on Nigerian sextortion rings) but is gender-blind.

1.3 Objectives of the Study

The study is guided by the following specific objectives:

1. To examine the nature, patterns, and typologies of female involvement in cybercrime in Abuja, FCT.

2. To identify the socio-economic that predispose women to cybercrime participation in Abuja, FCT.

3. To assess the roles played by women within cybercrime networks operating in or connected to Abuja, FCT.

4. To evaluate the criminal justice system’s approach to female cybercrime offenders in Abuja, FCT, including prosecution patterns and sentencing outcomes.

5. To recommend gender-sensitive preventive for addressing female cybercrime involvement in Abuja, FCT.

1.4 Significance of the Study

Academically, the project contributes to the scholarship of Nigerian feminist criminology, which has been chronically lagging in taking up digital crimes as compared to offline violence. It disrupts male narratives and introduces African insights into the world of gender-and-cybercrime literature by producing empirical data about an insufficiently studied group of offenders to challenge the current situation, in which the few available data points about the continent continue to multiply as transnational risks continue to grow.

In practise, the consequences are immediate. In the case of the EFCC, the results may be used to train investigators to be gender conscious, identify women with coercive or supportive relationships in the networks, and diversion or rehabilitation programmes based on the need to deal with trauma and economic motivations, instead of using the same punitive approach. The Nigerian legal system, such as the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, and so on) Act (amended 2024), imposes gender-neutral clauses on such crimes as fraud, cyberstalking, and money laundering. Sentencing and policy do not incorporate differences in female profiles (lower culpability in hierarchies, survival motivation, relational coercion, etc.), which may enhance justice and efficacy.

Under the ecosystem of Abuja, highlighted in universities, youth-specific and digital-literacy NGOs, empowerment efforts: campus-wide initiatives on female-specific pressures, community-based interventions on peer recruitment, and the need to educate on digital hazards in high-cost urban environments may produce results that determine the desired and efficient prevention.

1.5 Scope of the Study

The study is geographically confined to Abuja, FCT, drawing on court records, EFCC prosecution data, and interviews with relevant stakeholders and consenting female ex-offenders. The temporal scope is 2020–2024. Ethical limitations are significant, given the sensitivity of data involving criminal justice records and the vulnerability of female ex-offenders; all primary data collection will adhere strictly to ethical guidelines on informed consent, anonymisation, and participant protection. The study’s findings apply specifically to Abuja and may not be directly generalisable to female cybercrime patterns in other Nigerian cities.

References

Aborisade, R. A. (2023). Yahoo boys, yahoo parents? An explorative and qualitative study of parents’ disposition towards children’s involvement in cybercrimes. Deviant Behavior, 44(7), 1102–1120.

Aborisade, R. A., Akoji, O., & Okuneye, B. A. (2022). Internet scamming and the techniques of neutralization: Parents’ excuses and justifications for children’s involvement in online dating fraud in Nigeria. International Annals of Criminology, 60(2), 161–177.

Adebanjo, T. K. (2022). Legal responses to gender-based cybercrime in Nigeria. Temple Gate Publishing.

Adejoh, S. O., Alabi, T. A., Adisa, W. B., & Emezie, N. M. (2019). “Yahoo Boys” phenomenon in Lagos Metropolis: A qualitative investigation. International Journal of Cyber Criminology, 13(1), 1–20.

Bamidele, A. H. (2023). Poverty and youth engagement in cybercrime in Nigeria: An overview. Taraba International Journal of Social Sciences Research, 2(1).

Eboibi, F. E., & Ogorugba, O. M. (2023). Rethinking cybercrime governance and internet fraud eradication in Nigeria. Journal of Legal, Ethical and Regulatory Issues, 26(S1), 1–14.

Lazarus, S., & Button, M. (2022). Tweets and reactions: Revealing the geographies of cybercrime perpetrators and the North–South divide. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 25(8), 504–511.

Lazarus, S., Button, M., & Adogame, A. (2022). Advantageous comparison: Using Twitter responses to understand similarities between cybercriminals (“Yahoo Boys”) and politicians (“Yahoo men”). Heliyon, 8, e11142.

Lusthaus, J., Holt, T. J., Levi, M., Kleemans, E., Leukfeldt, E. R., & Rutger Leukfeldt, E. (2025). The evolution of Nigerian cybercrime: Two case studies of UK-based offender networks.