Mariam Adepeju Abdulraheem-Mustapha

Juvenile justice administration in Nigeria is an offshoot of the general criminal justice system. Its approach towards children has always been marked by difficulties associated with protective and traditional approaches of dealing with crimes. Despite the setting up of corrective institutions to cater for delinquent juveniles, the increasing number of juveniles involved in crimes continued unabated and those institutions are now over-stretched. This lacuna stimulates the study and need for an empirical examination of the problems inherent in the juvenile justice administration in Nigeria. However, because of its overlapping nature, the work engages historically the experiences of children with the nation’s juvenile administration system. This is therefore a field that has to be understood within a humanistic context. It adds to the existing knowledge and literature in the field and opens up new frontiers for further research