Journal Article

Identification of Crime Vulnerable Areas in Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University Lapai, Niger State, Nigeria

Abstract

The increase in global crime rate is due to increase in population and poor socioeconomic, political, and environmental conditions which trigger low income earnings and extreme unemployment. Increasing population in the cities and their surrounding areas without adequate planning and provision to improve the living condition of the teeming masses and provide amenities and essential services has been associated with increased crime. In addressing issues of crime, several attempts have been made include studies relating to analysis and prediction crimes by clustering and classification, crime analysis using K-means clustering, mapping and analysis of crime with ArcGIS spatial tools, identification of hotspots and safe ones of crime with Geo-spatial analysis approach, and crime hotspot mapping using Geospatial technique and ground data. The current parse of crime study has left much to be desire of, especially in the aspect of crime mitigation. This knowledge-gap will require the use of space base technology that can effectively manage network where in and outflow of population can be monitored as effective way of policing the society. The objectives of the research include; identification of locations of major crime activities in the study area using the crime records obtained from Security agencies and coordinates of these crime locations obtained using GPS receiver, determination of the entries and exits land points in IBBU Lapai using a very low-resolution satellite data and to map out crime hotspot IBBU Lapai using KDE. Based on the generated information and methods adopted, a crime hotspot map was developed. The result shows that 35 crime incidences were recorded on the three (3) major crimes that happen between 2014 and 2019 in the study area. Out of this, 32 recorded cases, representing 91.4% are theft crime incidences recorded during the period. Assault crime incident has 2 recorded cases, representing 6%. While burgling crime incident recorded only one (1) case, representing 3%. The crime scenes were noticed to be spread across the university community with concentration of crime spot synonymous to area of high population. Majority of the crime spot concentrated at the highly porous area where there exist free entry and exit either by road, footpath and open network.

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