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Determinants of Crime in Nigeria from Economic and Socioeconomic Perspectives: A Macro-Level Analysis

Received: 17 January 2019    Accepted: 18 March 2019    Published: 8 April 2019
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Abstract

The study examined the determinants of crimes in Nigeria from economic and socioeconomic perspectives: A macro-level analysis using a time series data covering the period of 1990 to 2014. Both economic and socio-economic factors that determinant crime were included in the model. The economic factors include GDP per capita; male unemployment rate; female unemployment rate and poverty rate while the socioeconomic-demographic factors include higher education enrolment; urban population and rural population. The study embraces the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model to empirically analyze the model since the variables were stationary at levels I(0) and first difference I(1). The empirical results in the long-run indicated that gross domestic product per capita and female unemployment rate was found to have a negative significant effect on crime rate in Nigeria while urban and rural population, male and female unemployment rate were found to have a positive significant effect on crime rate in Nigeria. Also, the results of the short-run indicated that gross domestic product per capita and higher education was found to have a negative significant effect on crime rate in Nigeria while urban population, male unemployment rate and poverty rate were found to have a positive significant effect on crime rate in Nigeria in the short-run. Therefore, for a country like Nigeria to reduce criminal activities in the country, there must be an increase in the income of the people. Also, government should invest more in education because it makes the people more rational and more risk averse and so it reduces the propensity to commit crimes. Therefore, higher education attainment will be the cure for criminal activities in Nigeria. Government should also create more jobs because high unemployment rates will compel people to commit crimes and this will increase crime rate in Nigeria. Lastly, there should be high budgetary provision towards poverty alleviation programme because higher poverty may lead to higher crimes rate due to depression or mental illness associated with being poor and this will decreases the rate of return of legal activities and more likely to increase return of illegal activities.

Published in International Journal of Health Economics and Policy (Volume 4, Issue 1)
DOI 10.11648/j.hep.20190401.13
Page(s) 20-28
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This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Crime Rate, Economic Factor, Socioeconomic Factor, ARDL, Nigeria

References
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[2] Khan, N.; Ahmed, J.; Nawaz, M. and Zaman, K.; (2015). The Socio-Economic Determinants of Crime in Pakistan: New Evidence on an Old Debate. Arab Economics and Business Journal, 10: 73–81.
[3] Ghani, Z. A., 2017. A Comparative Study of Urban Crime between Malaysia and Nigeria. Journal of Urban Management xxx: xxx – xxx.
[4] Omotor, D. G.; (2009). Socio-Economic Determinants of Crime in Nigeria. Pakistan Journal of Social Sciences, 6(2): 54 - 59.
[5] CLEEN Foundation (2007): http://www.cleen.org/about.html 11-04-09.
[6] Omotor, D. G.; (2010). Demographic and Socio-Economic Determinants of Crimes in Nigeria (A Panel Data Analysis). Journal of Applied Business and Economics, 11(1): 181.
[7] Anthony, A. A., 2013. Social Factors Affecting Effective Crime Prevention and Control in Nigeria. International Journal of Applied Sociology, 3(4): 71-75.
[8] Lobonţ, O. R., Nicolescu, A. C., Moldovan, N. C., Kuloğlu, A., 2017. The Effect of Socioeconomic Factors on Crime Rates in Romania: A Macro-Level Analysis. Economic research-Ekonomska istraživanja, 30(1): 91-111.
[9] Levitt, S. D. and Miles, T. J.; (2006). Economic Contributions to the Understanding of Crime. Annu. Rev. Law Soc. Sci, 2: 147–164.
[10] Buonanno, P., Leonida, L., 2005. Non-linearity between Crime and Education: Evidence from Italian Regions. Social Problems, 34: 187 – 211.
[11] Clear, T. R., 2014. The Effects of High Imprisonment Rates on Communities. Crime and Justice, 37(1): 97 - 132.
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[16] Murray, J. Cerqueira, D. R. D and Kahn, T.; (2013). Crime and Violence in Brazil: Systematic Review of Time Trends, Prevalence Rates and Risk Factors. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 18: 471 – 483.
[17] Becker, G. S., 1968. Crime and Punishment: An Economic Approach. Journal of Political Economy, 76(2): 169 - 217.
[18] Machin, S.; Marie, O., Vujić, S., 2011. The Crime Reducing Effect of Education. Economic Journal, 121: 463-484.
[19] Pesaran, M. H., Shin, Y., Smith, R. J., 2001. Bounds Testing Approaches to the Analysis of Level Relationships. Journal of Applied Econometrics, 16(3): 289-326.
[20] Johansen, S., 1988. Statistical Analysis of Co-integrating Vectors. Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, 12, 231 - 54.
[21] Johansen, S. and Juselius, K. (1990). Maximum Likelihood Estimation and Inferences on Co-integration–with applications to the demand for money. Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, 52, 169–210.
[22] Central Bank of Nigeria’s Statistical Bulletin (CBN), 2015. Central Bank of Nigeria Annual Reports for Various Years, Nigeria. http://www.cenbank.org/Documents/annualreports.asp (accessed June 2, 2016).
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[25] Gujarati, D., 2003. Basic Econometrics. Forth Edition. Singapura: McGraw-Hill.
Cite This Article
  • APA Style

    Aduralere Opeyemi Oyelade. (2019). Determinants of Crime in Nigeria from Economic and Socioeconomic Perspectives: A Macro-Level Analysis. International Journal of Health Economics and Policy, 4(1), 20-28. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.hep.20190401.13

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    ACS Style

    Aduralere Opeyemi Oyelade. Determinants of Crime in Nigeria from Economic and Socioeconomic Perspectives: A Macro-Level Analysis. Int. J. Health Econ. Policy 2019, 4(1), 20-28. doi: 10.11648/j.hep.20190401.13

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    AMA Style

    Aduralere Opeyemi Oyelade. Determinants of Crime in Nigeria from Economic and Socioeconomic Perspectives: A Macro-Level Analysis. Int J Health Econ Policy. 2019;4(1):20-28. doi: 10.11648/j.hep.20190401.13

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  • @article{10.11648/j.hep.20190401.13,
      author = {Aduralere Opeyemi Oyelade},
      title = {Determinants of Crime in Nigeria from Economic and Socioeconomic Perspectives: A Macro-Level Analysis},
      journal = {International Journal of Health Economics and Policy},
      volume = {4},
      number = {1},
      pages = {20-28},
      doi = {10.11648/j.hep.20190401.13},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.hep.20190401.13},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.hep.20190401.13},
      abstract = {The study examined the determinants of crimes in Nigeria from economic and socioeconomic perspectives: A macro-level analysis using a time series data covering the period of 1990 to 2014. Both economic and socio-economic factors that determinant crime were included in the model. The economic factors include GDP per capita; male unemployment rate; female unemployment rate and poverty rate while the socioeconomic-demographic factors include higher education enrolment; urban population and rural population. The study embraces the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model to empirically analyze the model since the variables were stationary at levels I(0) and first difference I(1). The empirical results in the long-run indicated that gross domestic product per capita and female unemployment rate was found to have a negative significant effect on crime rate in Nigeria while urban and rural population, male and female unemployment rate were found to have a positive significant effect on crime rate in Nigeria. Also, the results of the short-run indicated that gross domestic product per capita and higher education was found to have a negative significant effect on crime rate in Nigeria while urban population, male unemployment rate and poverty rate were found to have a positive significant effect on crime rate in Nigeria in the short-run. Therefore, for a country like Nigeria to reduce criminal activities in the country, there must be an increase in the income of the people. Also, government should invest more in education because it makes the people more rational and more risk averse and so it reduces the propensity to commit crimes. Therefore, higher education attainment will be the cure for criminal activities in Nigeria. Government should also create more jobs because high unemployment rates will compel people to commit crimes and this will increase crime rate in Nigeria. Lastly, there should be high budgetary provision towards poverty alleviation programme because higher poverty may lead to higher crimes rate due to depression or mental illness associated with being poor and this will decreases the rate of return of legal activities and more likely to increase return of illegal activities.},
     year = {2019}
    }
    

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  • TY  - JOUR
    T1  - Determinants of Crime in Nigeria from Economic and Socioeconomic Perspectives: A Macro-Level Analysis
    AU  - Aduralere Opeyemi Oyelade
    Y1  - 2019/04/08
    PY  - 2019
    N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.hep.20190401.13
    DO  - 10.11648/j.hep.20190401.13
    T2  - International Journal of Health Economics and Policy
    JF  - International Journal of Health Economics and Policy
    JO  - International Journal of Health Economics and Policy
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    UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.hep.20190401.13
    AB  - The study examined the determinants of crimes in Nigeria from economic and socioeconomic perspectives: A macro-level analysis using a time series data covering the period of 1990 to 2014. Both economic and socio-economic factors that determinant crime were included in the model. The economic factors include GDP per capita; male unemployment rate; female unemployment rate and poverty rate while the socioeconomic-demographic factors include higher education enrolment; urban population and rural population. The study embraces the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model to empirically analyze the model since the variables were stationary at levels I(0) and first difference I(1). The empirical results in the long-run indicated that gross domestic product per capita and female unemployment rate was found to have a negative significant effect on crime rate in Nigeria while urban and rural population, male and female unemployment rate were found to have a positive significant effect on crime rate in Nigeria. Also, the results of the short-run indicated that gross domestic product per capita and higher education was found to have a negative significant effect on crime rate in Nigeria while urban population, male unemployment rate and poverty rate were found to have a positive significant effect on crime rate in Nigeria in the short-run. Therefore, for a country like Nigeria to reduce criminal activities in the country, there must be an increase in the income of the people. Also, government should invest more in education because it makes the people more rational and more risk averse and so it reduces the propensity to commit crimes. Therefore, higher education attainment will be the cure for criminal activities in Nigeria. Government should also create more jobs because high unemployment rates will compel people to commit crimes and this will increase crime rate in Nigeria. Lastly, there should be high budgetary provision towards poverty alleviation programme because higher poverty may lead to higher crimes rate due to depression or mental illness associated with being poor and this will decreases the rate of return of legal activities and more likely to increase return of illegal activities.
    VL  - 4
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Author Information
  • Department of Economics, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria

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