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Influence Of Groupthink, Group Cohesiveness And Deindividuation On Criminal Behaviour Tendency Amongst Undergraduates
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CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study
Criminal
behaviour amongst undergraduates has been a major issue in the school
system in Nigerian universities. Literally, Paranjape (2011) defined
criminal behaviour as a person’s actions or inaction which tends to
undermine the grand norms governing a given society such action may be
tantamount to violation of the social contract and mutual consensus
entered into by members of the society. Behaviour that does not conform
to the cultural norms or laws of a given society at a particular time
and is often times negatively sanctioned, is referred to as criminal.
This implies that non-conformity to a given set of laws or norms that
are accepted by a significant number of people in a community, society
or group is a criminal act. Society highly values conformity to socially
accepted behaviour and expects it to be accepted and upheld by its
members.
Criminal behaviour takes various forms. Bribery and
corruption is one of the criminal behaviours exhibited amongst some
students and lecturers in higher institutions. This menace is eating up
the growth of Nigeria, because, undergraduates who had indulged in
corrupt practices when in school will also do the same when given an
opportunity to lead in the society. With the high rate of corruption in
Nigeria, it can be said that, most of these corrupt leaders might have
involved themselves in one criminal act or the other when they were in
school
Hallack and Passion (2007) in their work pointed out that,
corruption constitutes a serious threat to the successful achievement of
educational goals. There are various degrees of corrupt practices.
Nta
(2012) reported that, from petitions of students, members of the
university staff, unions and others stakeholders, corrupt practices in
the university system includes; admissions racketing, examination
misconduct, falsification of academic records such as transcripts and a
few to mention. Igbinovia (2003) observed that, there is hardly any
Nigerian living today that can claim that he or she has not advertently
or inadvertently, by commission or omission been involved in crimes or
benefitted directly or indirectly from criminality or deviance or the
commission of crimes or the proceeds of criminality. The various forms
of criminal behaviour will be streamlined to three aspects which are;
examination misconduct, sexual harassment and vices.
Examination
misconduct as a criminal behaviour is mostly practiced by
undergraduates. It refers to cheating in examination conditions to get
unearned marks with the aim of passing an examination. Some of the ways
or methods of exams misconduct includes; the use of bullets (small
papers with answers on), impersonating, sorting, leakage of examination
questions, swapping of exams sheets and to name a few. Some factors
which enhance students are the relationship they have amongst some
lecturers known as the connivance between some students and some
lecturers, poor supervision and invigilation, overcrowding, low morale
amongst lecturers and laziness on the part of the students, un-conducive
study environments and the prevailing morale decadence in Nigeria.
Pratt (1981) stated that, students are likely to cheat when they are not
prepared for examinations. Examination malpractice has become an
epidemic in the Nigerian university system. It is so embarrassing that
the federal military government in 1984 promulgated a decree (Decree 20)
to deal with exams malpractice; Part of it reads; any person who
fraudulently or with intent to cheat or secure any unfair advantage to
himself or any other person, or in abuse of his office, produces or
sells any question paper intended for examination of persons, at any
examination specified in section 3 (27) (c) of this decree, shall be
guilty of an offence and on conviction be sentenced to 21 years
imprisonment (Fagbemi, 1998, p.17). Despite these laws, examination
misconduct has been on the increase and this is due to the
non-implementation of the laws, reasons for it being, the low moral
standards in most universities, students fear of failure, inadequate
preparedness and 419 syndromes that have eroded deeply into the life of
the society. Fayombo (2004) outlined the reasons for examination
malpractice into psychological and sociological factors. Due to the
overdependence of certification in Nigeria, it has led the populace to
acquire certificates either legally or illegally. This has had a
negative impact on the quality of education to the extent that a lot of
graduates cannot defend their Degrees.
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ABSRACT - [ Total Page(s): 1 ]The study investigated the influence of Groupthink, Group cohesiveness and Deindividuation on Criminal behaviour of Undergraduates of Akwa Ibom State University, Ikot Apkaden campus, Mkpat Enin Local Government Area and Obio Akpa campus, Oruk Anam Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria. A total of three hundred and twelve (312) undergraduates made up of 166 males (54.1%) and 146 females (45.9%). These participants were selected using simple random sampling technique. Their ages ranged ... Continue reading---
