Examining the Research Gap in Feminist Criminology Studies of Female Offending in Northern Nigeria

Feminist criminology has generated important insights into female offending patterns, pathways, and justice system responses, but its application to northern Nigerian female offenders, whose pathways into crime are shaped by distinctive gender norms, Islamic legal frameworks, and economic vulnerability patterns, represents a significant scholarly gap. This study examined this research gap through systematic literature review and primary qualitative research. A scoping review of nine databases identified only 14 publications from 2015 to 2024 that applied feminist criminological frameworks to female offending in northern Nigeria, compared with substantially larger literatures from South West and South East contexts and from African feminist criminology scholarship more broadly. Primary qualitative research comprised in-depth interviews with 24 female inmates at correctional facilities in Kano and Maiduguri, analysed through feminist pathways theory. Results confirmed that pathways into crime among northern Nigerian women are dominated by economic coercion (particularly drug trafficking recruitment by intimate partners), survival crime responses to domestic violence and abandonment, and community conflict-related property crimes. Islamic legal framework intersections with the secular criminal justice system created distinctive justice experiences including dual-track prosecution vulnerability. Agency and resistance within criminal pathways was present but systematically marginalised in official case records. The study identifies six priority feminist criminological research questions for northern Nigeria and recommends gender-responsive criminal justice reform grounded in feminist pathways understanding.

Keywords: feminist criminology, female offending, northern Nigeria, pathways theory, gender and crime