‘They Collected Money and Used Hammer to Remove My Front teeth’: ‘One-Chance’ Criminality and Victimisation Experiences in Lagos Transport Corridors

ABSTRACT

“One-chance” criminality has become public transport threat in Lagos State where passengers are trapped through deceit, robbed, and victimized by individuals or groups pretending to offer public transportation services. Understanding the strategies and victimization experiences may help illuminate this phenomenon toward developing preventive cues and appropriate institutional response. This study, therefore examines “one-chance” strategies and the victimization experiences of passengers in Lagos public transportation corridors. The Routine Activities Theory (RAT) is used to explain the phenomenon using exploratory research design. The snowball technique was used to reach victims of one-chance robbery who responded to in-depth interview guide questions which probed into the strategies, victimization experiences and coping strategies. Findings show that timing, disguise/deception, taking unusual routes, tampering with the vehicle central lock, reworking the seatbelt, and winding up glasses are methods adopted by the one-chance robbery perpetrators to victimize. Physical assaults (beating with all kinds of weapons, sexual assaults, and forced pushing out of the vehicle at top speed which could lead to the victim’s disability or death) and loss of valuables (dispossession of jewelleries, monies, and phones). Participants increased vigilance before boarding, hailing a private taxi and instrumentalised religion for protection as coping strategies. The study provokes mapping of “one-chance” hot-spots by law enforcement authorities and routine adjustment for commuters.

KEYWORDS:

• Robbery
• transport crime
• victimisation
• routine activity theory
• law enforcement

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

¹ https://www.tribuneonlineng.com/144625/

² http://saharareporters.com/2018/09/06/19-yr-old-one-chance-robber-jumps-lagoon-evade-arrest

³ Police Press Release, 1^st of March to 1^st of April, 2021

⁴ http://thenationonlineng.net/robbed-defiled-one-chance-operators/

⁵ https://globalpatriotnews.com/commercial-bus-robbers-one-chance-back-on-lagos-roads/

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Oludayo Tade

Oludayo Tade teaches crime, deviance and social problems at Nigeria’s Premier University, University of Ibadan. A fellow of the Institute for Money, Technology and Financial Inclusion (IMTFI) at the University of California, Irvine, USA, Tade’s scholarly publications have appeared in journals like International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy (IJSSP), International Review of Victimology (IRV), Journal of Financial Crime (JFC), International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology (IJOTCC), Journal of Asian and African Studies (JAAS), Canadian Journal of African Studies (CJAS) and Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment and Trauma (JAMT), Comparative Sociology, African Identities and Deviant Behaviour. He is on the Editorial Board of International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology (IJOTCC) Sage as Associate Editor and African criminology section editor. He is the Communications officer of the Conflict Research Network West Africa (CORN WEST Africa) and a member of the Nigerian Society for Criminology. He can be reached at [email protected].

Muhammed Faisol Olaitan

Muhammed Faisol Olaitan teaches crime, victimology, deviance and social problems in the department of sociology and criminology, Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso. Dr Faisol is fellow of CODESRIA and committee member of the Society for the Study of Social Problems, USA. he can be reached at [email protected].