1.1 Introduction
Crime is an intentional act in violation of criminal law which is without an excuse. Crime persists as long as human society exist, therefore there is a continuous effort and legitimacy to report, investigate and provide convincing evidences to prosecute individuals who perpetrate any criminal activity (Tappan, 2001). Crime as a function of the adoption of standards by the society rather than individualistic standards, that is, the society gradually determine what is perceived as good value and bad acts and proscribe possible consequences (Shodghangha, 2011). Nature of crime is the form which any criminal activity that has the potential to cause significant physical, financial and material losses to victim takes. Thus, the impact of the nature of crime is probably best determined by the perceived seriousness or intensity of its effects in addition to the duration of its pains essentially from the victim's own perspective.
As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Research hypothesis and questions, Limitation of the study and Definition of technical terms.
1.2 Background of Study
Crime is any act that is contrary to the law, which can lead one to punish accordingly. Nigeria is a country where things work on a reversible order. Some crimes are punishable by law, depend on the country. In our state (Enugu) to be precisely, some offences like cheating, rigging of election, stealing, advance free frauds (419), and many more are tend to be in reverse other. Any citizen that fall under crime may be punish depend on how the state used to punish their offenders, due to neglection. The rate of crime in Nigeria is a nagging one, such that it will be difficult to know the real criminals. However the word crime compasses the acts which are contrary to the law and the principle of National Justice, since the society has streamline crime to only armed robbery.
Crime causes loss of live and property as well as overwhelming fear of insecurity. These have serious consequences for democracy, economic development, social capital and associational life generally. Individual and societal aspirations for democracy, development, human rights, high standard of living are undermined by high level of crime.
Increase in violent crime and delinquency, is a common feature of countries in transition. This has been attributed to the uncontrollable nature of change in its formative stage, demobilization or dismantling of repressive security apparatuses used by previous authoritarian regimes in controlling crime and the unequal socio-economic opportunities brought about by economic liberalization programs. What differentiate societies in transition from one another with regard to increase in common crimes and disorders are the policies and strategies that have been adopted by the governments to address them. Countries that have invested more in social crime prevention and in finding peaceful solutions to their political problems through transparent processes appear to have managed rise in criminal deviance and discontent better than others (Shaw 2001; Shearing & Kempa 2001 in Etannibi and Chukwuma, 2005).
The Nigerian experience cannot be different. The first four years of transitional democracy in the country witnessed perceived and real increase in violent crime and disorder, so much so that safety and security issues ranked very high among citizens priority concerns. Increasing incidence of armed robbery led to a paralyzing fear which in turn affected economic and social life in the country. As a result of the growing rates and severity of criminality successive governments in the country since the early 1980s introduced diverse crime control measures, but without much success.
This resulted in a large proportion of youths, searching for jobs under the prevailing harsh economic conditions. The presence of this enormous pool of idle youths, who are both skilled and unskilled and sometimes homeless, created a fertile ground for deviant activities (Ogundipe, 2013). The increase in crime, judging by available statistics appears to continue every year. Frightening as the data seem, they do not make the nature of the crime that produced them manifest. If 67.0% of Lagos residents have fear of becoming victims of crimes, 23.0% claimed to have experienced crime, the general public believed that crime rate in Lagos increased from 12.0% to 21.0% between 2011 and 2012 with robbery at 28.0% and theft of property at 17.0% as the more prevalent offences in the state (CLEEN Foundation, 2013), then crime rate in Lagos is high enough to justify this inquiry.
Therefore, in Nigeria where the research was carried out, the activities that was conducted is to know the Analysis of Reported Cases of Crime.
1.3 Statement of Problems
Investigation revealed that Most Nigerians agree that crime rates and insecurity in the country are very high and that over the last years, the country has experienced a steep rise in crime. Organized and non-organized crime and attendant vices such as smuggling of contrabands, especially firearms, counterfeiting, money-laundering, armed robberies, kidnapping, car hijacking, and human trafficking have become sources of worry for the Nigerian government. Likewise, incidents of high profile crime and politically motivated killings and kidnapping have lately compounded the complexity of the crime situation in the country.
The notable crime reporting platforms are lopsided and not intuitive. The process of reporting crimes to security agencies still remain very difficult. The platforms are also unidirectional in the sense that they do not have feedbacks for the members of the society. The existing platforms do not support sharing of relevant information with other security agencies, thereby because owners of these platforms wants to take all the praise; while in actual fact security is being reinforced when meaningful and relevant information is shared among security stakeholders towards offering an excellent service.
1.4 Aim and Objectives of Study
The aim of the study is to analyze the Reported Cases of Crime using Sapele Police Station as a case study. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows:
- To critically examine whether the crime in Enugu state exhibit or display a trend;
- To compare the rate of crime between one class of crime and another;
- To find out whether the class of crime is independent or dependent of sex;
- To ascertain if seasons contributed to number of crime committed; and
- To determine the influences of nature of crime on victims' crime reporting practices be minimized in Enugu State Central Police Station.
1.5 Research Questions
The study came up with research questions so as to be able to ascertain the above stated objectives. The specific research questions for the study are stated below as follows:
- Is crime rate in Enugu State actually increasing or decreasing?
- Which forms of crime are the most rampant in Enugu State?
- What are the factors that motivate people to commit crime in Enugu State?
- What is the nature of crime that predicts victims' crime reporting practices?
- How does the nature of crime influence victims' crime reporting practices?
- How can the influences of nature of crime on victims' crime reporting practices be minimized in Enugu State Central Police Station?
1.6 Research Hypothesis
In order to pursue the objective of this study, the following generalized statements have been designed to guide and aids in obtaining the result for the experiment to be conducted. For this work, the null hypothesis will be represented with H0 while the alternative hypothesis will be represented with hypothesis H1.
Hypothesis One
- H0: There are no significant differences among various forms of crime committed in the State.
- H1: There are significant differences among various forms of crime committed in the State.
Hypothesis Two
- H0: There is no significant difference in the crime against persons and crime against property in the State.
- H1: There is significant difference in the crime against persons and crime against property in the State.
Hypothesis Three
- H0: There are no significant increases in the trend for crime as the year progresses
- H1: There are significant increases in the trend for crime as the year progresses
1.7 Significance of Study
This study would be great vital to the general public, the government, the Nigeria police and other agencies of crime concerned. This study will be of immense benefit to other researchers who intend to know more on this study and can also be used by non-researchers to build more on their research work. This study contributes to knowledge and could serve as a guide for other study.
1.8 Scope of Study
The scope of this research is focused on the Analysis of Reported Cases of Crime using Sapele Police Station in Enugu Urban Areas as a case study. The research work covers the analysis of cases of reported crime for period of eight year from January 2016 to December 2022.
1.9 Limitations of the Study
During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:
- Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
- Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
- Frequent power failure: This made the researcher append more money on fuel to ensure sustainable power.
- Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).
1.10 Definition of Terms
Crime: Crime is an intentional act in violation of criminal law which is without an excuse.
Information: It is used to tell someone that they are wrong about something.
