The imperative for data standardisation in Nigeria’s criminal justice system

Recent years have witnessed a growing consensus across the democracies of the world concerning the importance of data in governance and how it helps shape policies and public administration. This has led to nations investing significant resources into data at various levels of governance. The criminal justice system is no exception.

In Nigeria, the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA) 2015 has recognised the critical need to mainstream data in the administration of criminal justice to strengthen the efficiency and timeliness of criminal processes. However, mainstreaming data has been held back by the absence of standardised procedures for organising crime data. This has served as a significant bottleneck to ensuring efficiency in the institutions of the criminal justice system and how police and the courts handle issues and cases within their jurisdiction.

Data standardisation involves developing and adhering to consistent and uniform data formats, definitions, and structures. Data standardisation in the criminal justice system calls for uniformity in the concepts, definitions, and structures for collecting, classifying, analysing, storing, retrieving and disseminating crime data. These are crucial for promoting accountability, transparency, and informed decision-making in the criminal justice sector. Having uniform systems for collecting and organising data ensures that data that is critical to evaluating the performance of the criminal justice system and for policymaking is collected.

Poor data management practices create cracksin the criminal justice system, which offenders exploit to evade detection, manipulate the system and escape justice. For example, a criminal may commit a crime in one state, move to another state, assume a new identity with a clean record, or even retain the same identity and not be detected. This happens now and again because there are no standardised requirements for collecting and sharing crime information among criminal justice agencies.

When data practices are well defined and consistently applied, data becomes readily accessible, and stakeholders, including law enforcement agencies, prosecutors, and defence attorneys can work collaboratively on accurate information, leading to just, fair, timely and legally defensible outcomes. Oftentimes, however, the unavailability of data and inconsistency in practices surrounding data management make rational decision-making and interagency coordination in justice delivery difficult.

Challenges that have impeded this process in Nigeria’s criminal justice sector include poor data infrastructure or, for some criminal justice agencies, the lack of it altogether. Poor funding is also another major challenge, and low technical know-how has been a significant issue as well. Other challenges that have been noted are a lack of agreement regarding data practices and utility and resistance to change amongst the actors within the system.

Addressing the challenges will require significant political will and investments in data technologies and know-how. First, we need consensus regarding data formats and structures that should be deployed in the criminal justice sector, the types of data we should keep, and the uses data will be put to, which should align with statutory prescripts on the subject.

Secondly, we must devise an effective scheme for seamless coordination in data sharing between agencies in the criminal justice sector. We must end data silos in the criminal justice sector and encourage institutions to adopt interoperable database systems that facilitate data sharing with sister agencies in the sector. We must also promote shared understanding about data requirements in the criminal justice sector, and the benefit of data to the efficient and timely administration of criminal justice.

Thirdly, we must set a time frame for achieving full and effective compliance with laws that require the establishment of institutional or sectoral databases. Examples of these can be found in the ACJA, which requires the Nigeria Police Force to establish a Central Criminal Records Registry at the Force Headquarters, a Criminal Records Registry at each State Command of the Police, and the Attorney-General of the Federation to establish a manual and electronic database of all records or arrests at the Federal and State level.  The Act also requires the Nigerian Correctional Service to keep records of the time that awaiting trial inmates remain in detention and to alert the authorities about cases of protracted detention. 

Complying with these requirements will require standardisation of data. Standardised data sets will provide the foundation for meaningful analysis of crime trends in Nigeria, providing policymakers with the necessary tools to find constructive solutions to crime and safety problems in Nigeria. We cannot overlook the role of data in responding to these problems.

While the ACJA sets the foundation for evidence-based approaches to criminal justice reform by establishing requirements regarding data, concerted efforts are needed to overcome the challenges hindering the full realisation of these requirements. Relevant authorities must prioritise the development of data infrastructure, invest in training programs, and foster a culture that embraces the standardisation and use of data fordecision-making.

Murkthar and Oluwatoyin writes from the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA)