The Effect of Unemployment on Crime in Nigeria: A Panel Data Analysis

Abstract

The rising trend of crime in Nigeria is usually blamed on the high rate of unemployment. There is need therefore, to empirically investigate the relationship between unemployment and crime. Hence, this paper examined the impact of unemployment on different types of crime in Nigeria. The data that were used in this study consist of 36 states and Federal Capital Territory (FCT) spanning from 1996 to 2005 was used. Different estimation techniques ranging from OLS, WLS, Between estimator, Fixed effect and Random Effect were employed to estimate economics models of crime. The findings show that though employment was found to have significant impact on total crime and armed robbery, there no evidence that it causes kidnapping and vehicle theft. Prison, policing injuring or killing criminals was not found to be significant deterrent variables in the country but quick trial and prosecution of criminal's particularly armed robbery would significantly reduce rate of crime. Thus, it is recommended that police should get criminals arrested instead of killing them so that they can be tried and prosecuted if find guilty. Prisons should be restructured to serve as rehabilitation centers.

Analysis of selected crime data in Nigeria

“…Other studies on crime can be found in Refs. [7] , [8] , [9] , [10] , [11] , [12] , [13] , [14] , [15] , [16] , [17] , [18] , [19] , [20] and the references therein.…”

The Position of Forensic DNA Database in Criminal Investigation: Understanding the Utilization in Africa, Particularly Nigeria a Review

“…In the same light, a criminal is presumed to be a rational being who perpetrates crime as a result of the benefits to be received from the act which always outweighs the costs. Implying that individuals indulge in criminals acts because the probable monetary and non-monetary benefits are greater than the costs associated with the crime [25].…”

Emerging Security Threats: Factors and Implications for Nigeria’s Socio-Economic Development 2015-2019

“…No wonder, Suleiman (2018) opined that anxiety from Nigerian graduates that later turn to frustration, and then to aggression on the government is what has fueled the emergence of most of these security threats in the country. Kilishi et al (2014) as cited in Abdulkabir, (2017) believed that the rising wave of crime in Nigeria has been blamed on the increasing level of unemployment. However, the findings of the present study revealed that idle youths tend to engage in illegal activities in other to meet up with contemporary trends.…”