Criminals’ Recourse to Indegeneous Spirituality and Crisis of Crime Control in Anambra State

A Study in Interpretive Analysis

Abstract

the wake of Nigeria’s deepening security crisis, with rising cases of armed robbery, kidnappings, ritual killings, armed attacks on communities, and particularly, the growing use of mystical powers by criminals in their operations, Anambra State has become a stark example of the failure of security in recent times. Thus, this study explores the nexus between criminals’ recourse to spirituality and crime control in Anambra State between 2015 and 2023. Through the theoretical lens of Travis Hirschi’s Social Control Theory, the study employed a qualitative, interpretive research design rooted in phenomenology. It centred on the lived experiences of six purposefully selected police officers from the Anambra State Police Command, and Zone 13 headquarters. Data collection involved unstructured face-to-face interviews, audio recordings, and field notes, enabling a rich exploration of officers' perceptions. Analytical procedures followed descriptive phenomenology, using Quirkos software to code data and extract significant themes. Findings reveal a complex interplay between indigenous spirituality and formal policing: spiritual practices simultaneously function as tools of community cohesion and as mechanisms for violence and extrajudicial justice. Police officers perceive spiritual phenomena both as tactical instruments used by criminals and as informal coping mechanisms amidst institutional inefficiencies. These dynamics expose epistemic tensions between rational-legal policing and culturally embedded beliefs, revealing a critical disjuncture that hampers effective crime control. The study concluded that the rigid exclusion of spirituality from legal discourse obscures key aspects of crime dynamics in Anambra State. It recommended culturally informed police training, the establishment of an interdisciplinary consultative unit on supernatural claims, and the initiation of national policy dialogues to reconcile indigenous epistemologies with formal legal frameworks.