Abstract

In Criminology and the Criminal Justice System, the relevance of their objectives in jurisprudence has been ongoing debate in existing literature. Criminological schools of thought oscillate from the higher values of one theoretical and doctrinal to the other. Between the deterrence, punishment, and restorative-rehabilitative divide, most literature evaluates their conclusions from the Western jurisprudential and sociological prism. Few analyses have focus on existing criminal justice systems of traditional African societies. For example, the South African Truth Commission (The Truth Commission) represents an indigenous African jurisprudential approach to criminal justice and criminological explorations of sociopolitical malaise in society. The Truth Commission highlighted the tilt towards restorativerehabilitative essence of how most Africans approach crime and injustice. This article explores the continuing jurisprudential issues from the traditional African customary law system, using Nigeria and its film industry as a case study. The paper critically examines criminal justice and criminology systems based on their essence in the customary laws of traditional society. In conclusion, this article recommends an incorporation of the customary law regimes which tilt towards restorative justice in the scale of objectives of criminal justice.