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 |
Creative Commons |
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. |
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Copyright © The Author(s), 2019. Published by Science Publishing Group |
Crime Rate, Economic Factor, Socioeconomic Factor, ARDL, Nigeria
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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
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
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
@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} }
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 SP - 20 EP - 28 PB - Science Publishing Group SN - 2578-9309 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 IS - 1 ER -