Youths' Negotiation of Livelihoods and Cybercrimes in Nigeria

The paper examines youths’ negotiation of livelihoods and cybercrimes in Nigeria. The rising spate of cybercrimes in the country necessitated the need to look at the nexus between negotiation of livelihoods and cyber crimes. The paper looked at how negotiation of livelihoods can drive youths into cyber crimes and ways to improve the livelihood of youths in order to reduce their involvement in cyber crimes. Relevant literature was reviewed in the study. Two theories were reviewed and adopted as the theoretical orientation of the study. The theories are the space transition and the structural strain theories. The study found that youths negotiation of livelihood is responsible for their involvement in cybercrimes as they struggle to meet up with the demands of surviving especially in the urban areas where the standard of living is rising. The major effect of youths involvement in cyber crimes as the study found is that cyber crime is seen as a desirable way of livelihood negotiation. The study recommends that jobs should be provided for the youths through skill acquisition trainings like coding and web designing to enable them negotiate livelihoods through legitimate means. The study also recommends that youths who engage in cyber crimes should be punished by the relevant agencies to serve as deterrence to intending cyber criminals