CRIME MAPPING AND ANALYSIS IN KADUNA METROPOLIS, KADUNA STATE NIGERIA

ABSTRACT

This research mapped and analyzed crime incidences between 2010 and 2011 in Kaduna Metropolis, Kaduna state, Nigeria Using Remote Sensing and Geographic Information System (GIS) techniques. This was achieved by identifying and mapping the crime types, analyzing the spatial occurrence of the crimes, examining the temporal occurrence of crime and also identifying the hot spots areas in the metropolis. The data on crime were obtained from the 15 Police Divisional Headquarters within the metropolis. An administrative map of the study area was obtained from the Ministry of Land and Survey Kaduna State which was used as the base map for the study. Microsoft excel and ArcGIS version 9.3 was used to analyzed the data.A total of eleven (11) crime typeswere identified. Theft/Stealing had the highest incidence with 19.29% while Kidnapping was the least with 0.46%.The general distribution of crime in the metropolis revealed thatTudunWada had the highest crime with 15.05% while SabonGari had the least with 3.27%. The spatial distribution of each crime types showed that Armed Robbery was highest in Sabon Tasha with 13.64%, Murder in Rigachikun with 27.36%, Assault in Tudunwada with 21.75%, Theft/Stealing inTudunwada with 17.2%, Rape in Rigachikun with 19.1%, Forgery in Kabala West with 13.23%, Burglary in Tudun Wada with 19.2%. Suicide in Rigachikun with 26.54%, Cheating in Tudun Wada with 14.52%, Hurting/Fighting in SabonTash with 17.1% and Kidnapping in Rigachikun with 27.3%. The temporal distribution of crime revealed that crimes are committed most in December and January with 26.9% and 22.45% for both 2010 and 2011.The study identified four crime hot spots using the clustering techniques : Tudun Wada, Sabon Tasha, Rigachikun and Rigasa. These are areas where crime incidences exceed the average for the metropolis. The study therefore recommends that more effort in terms of personnel deployment or location of more police formations should be intensified in areas with high crime incidences and also crime documentation should be done alongside withabsolute location and time of the day or week for a better hot spots and temporal analysis. The use of GIS as a tool should be adopted in decision making, planning and management of crime with the aim of reducing the menace of crime in Kaduna Metropolis.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1         BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

Crime is one of the continuous problems that bedevil the existence of mankind. Since early days, crime had been a disturbing threat to his personality, property and lawful authority (Louis, Cookie,Louis and Sheldon1981).The relationship between crime and evolution of mankind is considered a historical one as Cain (first son of Adam and Eve) committed the first violent crime when he murdered his brother Abel because of jealousy (Hafiz and Muhammad, 2010).Today, in the modern complex world, the situation is most highly disturbing. Crime started in the primitive days as a simple and less organised issue, and ended today as very complex and organised. Therefore, the existence of crime and its problems have spanned the history of mankind. Due to the complex nature of the subject of crime, its causes and consequences, various academic disciplines such as criminology, sociology, geography, psychology and demography study it from their own perspective (Hafiz and Muhammad, 2010).

The distribution of crime across the landscape is geographically random since crimes are human phenomena. Several factors, including the lure of potential targets and simple geographic convenience for an offender, influence where people choose to break the law. Therefore, geography plays an important role in law enforcement and criminal justice. A popular slogan says criminals are not spirits, they move from one place to the other, and live in the society just like every one of us(Francis, Adewale, Timothy, Abimbola and Babajide. 2006)

Criminal activity continues to be a major concern in contemporary society. Most nations in the world are faced with unacceptable levels of delinquency and crime. In many of the world industrialized countries crime rates recorded by the police are many times those recorded 30 years ago(Francis, et al, 2006).

The International Crime Victim Survey (ICVS) has collected data on 55 countries, spread over six major regions including Africa, Asia, Central and Eastern Europe, Latin America, and Western Europe. Findings showed that for the 1989 to 1996 period, more than half of urban respondents reported being victimized at least once, regardless of what part of the world they inhabit (Zhuo, Messner, and Zhang 2008). According to Richard (2004) over 1.4 million violent crimes were reported in the United State in 2000 including more than 15,500 homicides. He stressed that the key ingredients in the incidence of street crime is as a result of proliferate drug use and widespread of fire arms.

During the pre-reformed China in 1950s and 1960s, only five to six criminal cases per 100,000 inhabitants were recorded annually which made it earn a reputation of being a ―crime free‖ society at that time (Liu, 2005). However, since China implemented economic reform and an open-door policy in the late 1970s, crime reporting has increased approximately 50 times the rates observed in the 1950s and 1960s (Zhang, Messner, and Lu, 2007).

According to Francis et al (2006), there is no place or society that is completely devoid of crime. The existence of crime is as old as the creation of man itself and man has always looked for ways to combat it and reduce it as much as possible. Murray, McGuffog, Western, and Mullins(2001) explained that the occurrence of criminal activity in form of theft, assault homicide etc. is something that takes place every day in almost all reaches of our world. They stressed that there is a great deal of debate on the causes of crime and affirmed that in the 1980s the rate of crime occurrence grew sharply to nearly epidemic proportions. In Nigeria, the level of crime is attributed to the unacceptable rate of unemployment, poverty, corrupt Police Force that is ill-equipped to fight crime (Adibe 2009). The idea that unemployment, poverty and corruption are related to a whole series of other misfortunes such as illness, despair, and crime is not a new one (Aminu, Manu, El-Maude and Kabiru 2013). Nigeria is currently caught in the web of crime dilemma, manifesting in the convulsive upsurge of both violent and non-violent crimes. But the most alarming and terrifying is the present escalation of violent crimes and the barbarity, lethality and trauma the perpetrators unleash on the hapless citizenry across the length and breadth of the country. Notable in this regard are the rising incidents of armed robbery, assassination and ransom-driven kidnapping, which are now ravaging the polity like a tsunami and spreading a climate of fears and anxieties about public safety (Uche, 2008). Ackerman and Murray (2004) stated that high crime rates are not unique features of a few nations, but statistically normal features of life all over the world

Urban areas like Kaduna due to population explosion, stark economic inequality and deprivation, unemployment, socio-political condition among others are factors that contribute to crime occurrence (Dodo 2008; Francis et al 2006). Greenburg and Rohe (1984) affirmed that certain environmental factors such as the physical layout of an area, proximity to various services and land use mixes are likely to influence criminal behaviour and are fundamental to the explanation of criminal activities in a spatial context. The issue of access, exposure, opportunity and the availability of targets are also important elements in helping to explain crime from an environmental perspective (Cohen and Felson, 1979; Brantingham and Brantingham, 1981). There have been several research efforts seeking to explain the geographic variation in crime rate for more than 150 years (Eck and Weisburd, 1995). Geographic Information System (GIS) as a tool can be used by police personnel to plan effectively for emergency response, determined mitigation priorities, analyse historical events, and predict future events. The ability to access and process information quickly while displaying it in a spatial and visual medium allows agencies to allocate resources quickly and more effectively. In the ‗mission-critical‘ nature of law enforcement, information about the location of a crime incident, suspect, or victim is often crucial to determine the manner and size of the response. GIS software helps co-ordinate vast amounts of location-based data from multiple sources. It enables the user to create layers for the data and view the data most critical to the particular issue or mission (Johnson 2000).

In an effort to fight crime, the U.S. Department of Justice, Criminal Division, has developed a Map Objects based spatial crime analysis system. The application, known as Regional Crime Analysis GIS (RCAGIS), was specifically developed to assist police departments in analyzing crime on a regional basis (David and Alex, 1999). A company – Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) developed softwares like MapInfo which introduced the first crime mapping applications accessible, in terms of both cost and technology to the average crime analyst. Suddenly, mapping crime was no longer a matter of sticking colour dots on paper maps. Basic pin maps could be done in one twentieth of the time as before, and many new advanced GIS features from raster mapping to buffer analysis to three-dimensional imaging were suddenly available to analysts everywhere (Harries, 1999). Crime mapping and analysis have evolved significantly over the past 30 years. In the beginning, many agencies utilized city and precinct maps events and crime plaque areas. Today with the rapid advancement of technology computer- based techniques for exploring, visualizing, and explaining the occurrences of criminal activity have been essential (McCord and Ratcliffe, 1999; Harries, 1999).

Applications of GIS to crime mapping and management have been successful in many developed countries. It is therefore pertinent to know that any community with high criminal activities is unattractive or less attractive to both local and foreign investment. This is the problem that prevails in some part of Nigeria. According to Aluyor (2005), the Nigerian security agents are not effective in trying to abate crime because of inadequate or poor location of police formations and personnel and failure to adopt the new technology used in fighting crime in developed countries. The police force has failed the Nigerian public by not providing information and awareness on crime hot spots, the time of the day or period of the year that crime are committed as reported by crime victims. This has contributed to the rising cases of crime incidence in Kaduna metropolis.

The use of GIS to map out and analyze crime hotspots will play a great role in abating crime rates in Kaduna metropolis. That is why the researcher intends to test the possibility of applying such tools in fighting crime. Failure to adopt the new technology in fighting crime means a degradation of police abilities, and a regression to the days of informal, infrequent crime analysis performed sporadically by patrol officers. Success can offer greatly improved problem oriented policing capabilities, optimal resource allocation, reduced crime rates, and the prevention of thousands of crimes (IACP, 2002).

Criminal activities are important concerns in the public safety of a contemporary society. Today many countries are faced with high levels of offences and crime rates. Clarifying where different types of crime and other incidents occur is one of the many important functions of crime analyses. There are different types of crime analysis. Many of the researches and practices are oriented to tactical, strategic, and investigative types of crime analysis. The aims of these applications are to detect the distribution and clustering of crimes, and to identify high rate regions to implement precautionary measures and provisions by crime agencies for public security (Ahmadi, 2003). However, administrative type of crime analysis focuses on providing summary data, statistic, and general trend information to managers.

1.2         STATEMENT OF THE RESEARCH PROBLEM

Kaduna   metropolis    has   experienced    exponential    growth   both   in    terms   of   population    and socioeconomic activities, a process termed as urbanization. An indicator of industrial development, labor market pooling, trade of goods and services, knowledge spillover, high level of income and economic relations. The other face of this urbanization may be the encouragement of crimes as well,

since crimes normally occur in large cities and highly urbanized areas (Krivo and Peterson, 1996). In rural areas, due to lower population density, criminal persons have fewer chances of escaping and hiding themselves because people know one another. The opposite is true for urban areas. The main facts of crimes in urban areas are the fewer chances of arrest and recognition (Glaeser and Sacerdote 1996). Therefore, it is argued that as urbanization increases so does crime (Galvin, 2002: Gaviria,2002) This is a common observation for many countries in the world.

Much work have been done in different parts of the world on the use of GIS in Crime mapping and analysis, (Murray et al, 2005; Haidong, Jianping, Shenjun, Zhanhong, Zhenhua, and Bailang, 2011; Johnson, 2000; Harries, 1999). In Nigeria, little or no effort has been made in this direction. The only known studies that exist focused on A GIS Approach to Crime Mapping and Management in Nigeria, A Case Study of Victoria Island Lagos (Francis, et al 2006).

Murray et al (2005) conducted a study on Crime mapping and analysis, they acquired data associated with crime in Lima and Columbus (Ohio) and integrated in a GIS environment and were able to map out crime hot spots. Their findings revealed that certain areas had high concentration of crime than others depending on the land use type. The result of their analysis had helped to formulate policy and decision making in the Lima Police Department activities, particularly with respect to community policing in the State. Similar study was conducted by the Chicago Police Department (CPD) in 2002

in an effort to fight murder and aggravated battery with fire arms, the result has led to a decline in criminal activities because there was 18% drop in murder compared with same period the year before (Anne, 2004).

Similarly, Haidong et al, (2011) also conducted a Spatial Analysis of Crime Pattern of Metropolis Using Police Records and GIS in Shangai. The Pearson Correlation method was used to probe the relationship between population and crime incidence. It was observed that both violent and property crime were closely related to population in each district. They compared the relationship between crime and proximity to the city and it was discovered that crime density reduces with distance away from the city.

In another study, Francis et al, (2006) carried out crime mapping and management in Victoria Island Lagos. They created a data base for the police formations and merged it with house address in a GIS environment, so that it is possible to track a distress call from a crime scene and find the possible shortest route from the police stations to the crime spot. They also did a buffering analysis of the location of the Police station and discovered that the police formations in Victoria Island were not adequately sited as some areas are bigger in land mass and densely populated than others.

Other studies focused on the impact of urban crime on property value in Akure, Nigeria (Bello, 2011), the impact of urban crime on residents‘ satisfaction and mobility in Nasarawa, Nigeria (Aluyor, 2005; Yacim, 2010), and a whole lots that look at the causes of crime in the society. None of these studies to the best of the researcher‘s knowledge has addressed crime mapping and analysis in the study area. The focus of the present study therefore is to map and analyse crime of Kaduna metropolis using GIS. The ability of law enforcement agencies to understand and decrease crime rates within a given area is largely dependent on their ability to understand and use their crime data they and other public safety agencies have accumulated. This includes both historical information generated by previous criminal activity and the continuous stream of data produced by new incidents that develop daily (Soneye 2002). For police departments to effectively use this data, it must be recorded in a well-organized manner, made easily accessible and available in an easy-to-understand format that promotes quick decision-making (Murray, et al, 2005).

The increasing cases of criminal activities in Kaduna metropolis has triggered the Kaduna State Government to come up with security measures. This has led to the establishment of a security unit, ―tagged Operation Yaki‖ from the Nigerian Police Force in Kaduna. This unit is saddled with the responsibility of fighting criminal activities in the metropolis. Despite this effort by the government and the Police, on a daily basis, crime cases are continually reported, by various media houses in the state. Hence the need for this study to map and analyz crime in the metropolis.

To successfully carryout this research, some basic fundamental research questions were raised:

1. What are the major crimes carried out in Kaduna Metropolis?
2. What is the spatial pattern of crime in Kaduna metropolis?
3. Are there changes in the crime pattern between 2010 and 2011?
4. Where are the hot spots of crime?
5. What periods of the year do crimes occur most?

1.3         AIM AND OBJECTIVES

The overall aim of this research was to map and analyse crime in Kaduna metropolis. This aim was achieved through the following specific objectives which are to:

1. identify and characterise crime types and incidence in the study area.
2. examine the spatial distribution of crime incidence in the study area.

• examine the temporal distribution of crime in the study area. identify crime hot spots in the study area.

1.4         SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The traditional and age-old system of intelligence and criminal record maintenance has failed to live up to the requirements of the existing crime scenario. Manual processes neither provide accurate, reliable and comprehensive data round the clock nor does it help in trend prediction and decision support. It also results in lower productivity and ineffective utilisation of manpower. The solution to this ever-increasing problem lies in the effective use of Information Technology (Francis et al, 2006).

Levine (1999), revealed that ―certain areas are more prone to higher concentrations of crime, widely labelled as ‗hot spots‘. Such areas are often targets of increase in manpower from law enforcement agencies in an effort to reduce crime, where resources are concerned. The identification of hot spots is helpful because most police department are understaffed. Clarifying where different types of crime and other incidents occur is one of the many important functions of crime analyses. As such the ability to prioritize intervention through a geographic lens is appealing Soneye (2002), established that a large proportion of the men of the Nigerian Police Force can hardly ascertain the areas under the jurisdiction of their stations or define the shortest route from their station to specific crime areas. He concluded that the police stations in Nigeria are far from being distributed according to geographical spread, population characteristics or crime incidence. Crime mapping and analysis will help in decision making because the information gotten will reveal areas that are in need of more police formation in the metropolis.

The popular adage that ‗information is power‘ is true because if crime are mapped out and analysed, both the police and the citizens (public) are informed about the areas that are notorious for a particula crime, it therefore means that they have been empowered and decisions would be easily taken. One major advantage of crime mapping is that it helps citizens to understand crime and how it affects the places we live. Currently, GIS is not being used to fight crime in Nigeria. This is due to the lack of awareness of the benefits offered by GIS in crime control and management in the country. Providing crime statistics for police administrators is important, Crime analysis can support decision making, problem solving, and strategy planning at every level of policing.

1.5         SCOPE OF THE STUDY.

This research was carried out in Kaduna metropolis which comprises of Kaduna South and Kaduna North and some parts of Chikun and Igabi that fall within the metropolis. Political map of Kaduna metropolis was used and the Districts was conveniently delineated based on the Jurisdiction of the Divisional Headquarters within the study area. The research was based on the available documented data on crimes in Kaduna provided by the Kaduna State Police Divisional Head Quarters, Kaduna. The study was based on crime data between 2010 and 2011.

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