Bullying in Nigerian Secondary Schools: A test of Gottfredson and Hirschi's General Theory of Crime

Gottfredson and Hirschi’s General Theory of Crime’s claim to explain crime, at all times, and in all places, has received considerable empirical support using Western, Scandinavian, and Asian samples. However, the theory is yet to be tested using a Nigerian sample. Similarly, school bullying has received considerable criminological, psychological, educational, and governmental attention. However, much of the attention is focused on bullying in Western, Asian, and Scandinavian countries. There appears to be scant, if any, attention, paid to this problem on the African continent. Using cross-sectional data from a sample of 1,192 junior secondary school (middle school) students in Nigeria, this study examines the prevalence of bullying in Nigeria, and the explanatory power of Gottfredson and Hirschi’s General Theory of Crime (GTC) in predicting bullying in that context and culture. This is the first test of the GTC with a Nigerian sample and is a spring board for effective bullying prevention policy/programs in Nigerian schools. The public policy implications of the findings are discussed.