Theoretical Analysis of Forensic Science as an Institution: Power, Knowledge, and Justice in Nigeria

Forensic science functions not merely as a technical discipline but as a social institution whose practices, authority claims, and organisational structures are embedded in broader relations of power, epistemic authority, and justice. This doctoral study develops an original theoretical analysis of forensic science as an institution in Nigeria, drawing on Foucauldian discourse analysis, new institutional theory, and the sociology of scientific knowledge. A critical interpretive research design was employed, conducting sixty discourse-analytic interviews with forensic scientists, criminal justice professionals, and policymakers across all geopolitical zones, performing institutional ethnographic observations at three major Nigerian forensic laboratories over eighteen months, and applying document analysis to sixty forensic science policy texts and court judgments. The study theorises how forensic science authority is constructed, legitimised, and contested within Nigeria's criminal justice field, identifying three dominant institutional logics: a technical rationality logic prioritising scientific accuracy, a legal compliance logic prioritising procedural defensibility, and a resource constraint logic that systematically compromises both. Original theoretical contributions include the Nigeria Forensic Institutional Field Model, which maps the structural dynamics driving forensic science practice, and the concept of Epistemic Dependency, describing the asymmetric knowledge relationship between forensic scientists and judicial actors that shapes evidence reception. The study makes a significant contribution to the sociology of forensic science and to critical scholarship on knowledge and power in African criminal justice systems. Keywords: institutional theory, forensic science, knowledge and power, Nigeria, sociology of science.