ORGANIZATIONAL FRUSTRATION AND SELF-ENHANCING HUMOUR AS CORRELATES OF ADHERENCE TO CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION PROCEDURE

Abstract

Inability to solve crimes has been perceived as one of the daunting challenges facing the criminal justice system today. This has been variously attributed to difficulties faced by investigating officers; hence the outrageous number of awaiting trials in Nigeria Prisons and police cells. Worthy of note is the impermeability nature of some offenders, which sometimes makes the investigating officers resort to shortcuts, an act capable of jeopardizing the entire justice process when suspected by a trial judge. What may contribute to an investigative officer’s resort to shortcuts prompted a study on organizational frustration and self-enhancing humour as correlates of adherence to criminal investigation procedure, with two hundred and seventeen (217) police officers. The Self-enhancing Humor Sub-scale of humour style questionnaire (HSQ), Frustration Discomfort Scale and Adherence to criminal investigation questionnaire were used for data collection. The correlational design, and Multiple Regression Analysis were adopted as the appropriate design and statistics for the study respectively. The result indicated that Organizational frustration did not correlate with adherence to criminal investigation procedure (r = -.053, p < .01). It also showed that self-enhancing humour strongly
and positively correlated with adherence to criminal investigation procedure (r = .972, p < .01). Finally, frustration and self-enhancing humour predicted adherence to criminal investigation procedure (r = -.053, p < .01). Improved work environment and inculcating positive interpersonal skills which may improve floating of humour within investigation contexts were thus recommended.