Title: Influence of police stations' location on crime incidence in developing countries like Nigeria

Authors: Olayinka Akinsumbo Ajala; Banji Raphael Owabumoye

Addresses: Department of Geography, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria ' Department of Geography, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria

Abstract: Studies on crime incidence believed that presence of police station in an area could reduce crime incidence. Without spatially based study, it might be erroneous to agree with their belief. This study was to ascertain this belief. Geographic information system (GIS) techniques were used to analyse both primary and secondary data acquired in the study area, Akure, Southwestern Nigeria. It was shown that crime incidence continued to increase as distance from police stations increased and started to decrease as distance increased to two kilometres due to reduction in police coverage. Also, the results showed that there was clustered pattern of crimes, the clustering was located at the central part of the study area where the police stations are located. The study concluded that spatial distribution of police stations could influence the pattern of crime incidence in cities.

Keywords: Akure; cities; coldspot; crime incidence; geographic information system; GIS; hotspot; insecurity; location; Nigeria; police station.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSSS.2018.092537

International Journal of Society Systems Science, 2018 Vol.10 No.2, pp.132 - 147

Received: 22 Dec 2016
Accepted: 07 Sep 2017
Published online: 24 Jun 2018 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article