Recidivism and Emotional Intelligence of Male Recidivists in Lagos State, Nigeria
Oluyemi Adetunji Stephens, Norma Margaret Nel · Journal of Psychology · 2014
Recidivism cuts across all nations in the world with its negative consequences on individuals, and the social and economic spheres of life. Despite various intervention strategies, the rate of recidivism has been on the increase. This calls for concern and a need to find a solution to the social malaise. The present study was designed to investigate emotional intelligence of male recidivists in some prisons in Lagos State, Nigeria. The study adopted a quantitative research method, using the descriptive survey research design. The sample for the study consisted of one hundred and five male recidivists from Maximum Security Prisons, Medium Security Prisons and Ikoyi Security Prisons, in Lagos. Purposive sampling was adopted for this study. One research question and two Null hypotheses guided the study. Data were obtained from the participants using two major instruments namely; Male Recidivist Personal Data Questionnaire (MRPDQ) Emotional Intelligence Tests (EQ). The EQ test has a reliability co-efficient alpha 0. 92. The research question was answered using simple percentage while the first hypothesis was analysed using the t-test and a One—Way Analysis of Variance was used for the second hypothesis. The result showed that most male recidivists have low emotional intelligence. It is also revealed that there is a significant difference in the emotional intelligence of male recidivists on the basis of nature of offence. Based on the findings of this study, it was recommended that emotional intelligence training should be included in the rehabilitation curriculum of Nigeria Prison Service.