Role of Gender in Determining Women’s Participation in Community Policing; The Nigerian Experience

Abstract

The desire for a more peaceful society and the need to involve the people in crime prevention has led to the adoption of community policing as a policing strategy in Nigeria. Community policing emerged due to the inadequacy of the police in preventing crime and maintaining order in the society. This people-oriented partnership intends to make the people part of policing within the community. However, just like many other aspects of human life, security issues are often regarded as a “man’s” job and therefore the contributions of women are neglected. Though women occupy a vital position in the family, they are still treated as part of property to be protected by men and therefore are left out of the synergy between the police and the public in crime prevention through community policing in Nigeria. This paper utilized Talcott Parsons Structural Functionalism and George J. Thompson’s Gap Theory to explain the challenges of women participation in community policing operations and the need to include them in crime prevention and security operations in Nigeria. The study methodology comprised a combination of both quantitative and qualitative. Questionnaire and in-depth interview constituted the instruments of data collections, while simple percentage and manual content analysis were utilized for analysis. The study showed that women were neglected in all community policing operations activities, from the planning to the execution stages within the study area.