Ishaya, Daniel Leku2023-12-142023-12-142016-07-05Cohen, K. A (1966) Deviance and Control, New Jersey's Prentice-Hall Inc. Criminal Code Act (Cap.77) Law of the Federation Erskine, H (1974). The Polls: Causes of Crime. Public Opinion Quarterly, 38:288 Forster, S & Thomas, C (1975) A Sociological Perspective on public support for capital punishment. Journal of psychiatry 45:641. Friedman, L (1969) Legal Culture and Social Development. Law and Society Review 62:29 Gibons, D.C (1969): Crime and Punishment: a Study in Social attitudes. SocialForces 47:391 Govlboume, H (1973) Politics and State in the World, London The Macmillan press Ltd. GrindstafT, F.C (1974) Public Attitude and Court dispositions: A comparative analysis. Sociology’and Social Research 58:147 Haralambos, M and Holbron, M (2013) Sociology Themes and Perspective: London: Collins Ltd. Igbo,E.D (2006) Criminology: a basic introduction published in Nigeria. Enugu. Lock-ken Publishershttps://keffi.nsuk.edu.ng/handle/20.500.14448/7298Public perception of state laws and sanctions of the offender are inevitable particularly the nature of crime and punishment in Nigeria society with serious implications for the success or failure of the law and the legal system. The public thinks, believe, and feels about the law and the legal system determine whether people actually turn to law or turn away from if whether the support the law or fight it and therefore whether the legal system succeeds in its social control functions or fails. The cardinal objective of study is to conduct a survey of public perception of criminal laws and sanctions in Nigeria and the research questions were examined the level of public support for state laws, public choices of penalties for criminal offences the perceptions of state law and punishment in Nigeria subgroup population vary in the way of punish offences. The major theoretical framework used for the paper is Marxist theory this explain the inherent contradiction, inequality and division of classes and group in the society. The theory submits that many of the laws in Nigeria are biased in favors of the economically privileged class and the law will not receive much public support. The paper also utilized secondary sources of data analysis the study concluded and recommended that in order to sustain widespread public support for the state laws or even to broaden support. The majority of laws in Nigeria will elicit low or passive support.enArticle