Child Abuse and Security Challenges in Nigeria

This article examines the link between child abuse and security challenges in Nigeria. General strain theory and social bond theory were, adopted as the theoretical frame of the study. While the former explains how blocked opportunities among the lower class youths lead to delinquency, and consequently, to insecurity in the society, the latter explains how weakened bond to conventional social institutions reduces social control of young persons, and subsequently, leading to insecurity in the society. Thus, abuse of children will have a long term effect and elicit deprivation that can later be, expressed through delinquency or crime. The article principally relied on secondary data. The article concludes that child abuse has many social and psychological consequences and they are associated to security challenges in Nigeria. As differently indicated by the data cited in this article, most of the city hooligans, members of urban gangs, Boko Haram and other forms of criminal gangs are largely from lower classes and majority have in one way or the other experienced child abuse and neglect. To overcome the menace of child abuse in Nigeria and by implication the insecurity, the article recommended that the Government, NGOs, community members and families should provide means for child protection, poverty reduction, and creation of awareness, etc. Ahmad S. Abdullahi | Zaitun Sunusi Bakabe "Child Abuse and Security Challenges in Nigeria" Published in International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (ijtsrd), ISSN: 2456-6470, Volume-4 | Issue-2 , February 2020, URL: https://www.ijtsrd.com/papers/ijtsrd30349.pd