Post-offence feelings and navigating the challenges in quitting: a follow-up study on hidden emotional roles of women in kidnapping in Nigeria

Abstract This study analysed women’s post-offence feelings of regret for conniving in kidnapping and reasons for their continuous complicity in the crime after post-offence pains. The participants were 12 female inmates remanded for kidnapping in the Umuahia custodial centre, and a qualitative thematic procedure was used to analyse the unstructured interview data. The results indicated that women’s connivance was voluntary and beset by uncertainties and sad tales, highlighting shame, guilt and remorse. These, coupled with feelings of being short-changed in financial compensation, resulted in dissatisfaction and threats of service withdrawal. However, their feelings of guilt and efforts to withdraw were short-lived for reasons ranging from fear of retribution and/or victimisation to the use of drugs to overcome the pains of post-offence experiences. Drawing from the participants’ experiences further highlights the study outcomes’ originality, value and acceptance in framing encompassing offender therapies and security responses. Their lived experiences and insider information offered new and perceptive insights into the complex dynamics and networks that interlink to undermine State anti-kidnapping structures. Plainclothes detectives need to initiate a regular purposive stakeout of designated pubs, restaurants and other crime concentrations to obtain information and associative evidence, leading to the closing in on offenders and their accomplices.