Monday, 17 May 2021: Crime in Nigeria is on the rise every day, despite different measures taken to curb it.Various criminal activities ensue daily such as murder, kidnapping, rape, burglary, cybercrimes to mention just a few.

The governments at different levels try to reduce it, if not totally eliminate crime in our society but different factors are encouraging it directly or indirectly.

Crime can be linked with unemployment, corruption, poverty, and inflation; but even if people were unemployed, poor and corrupt, criminality may not be that high, but when the cost of living, which is influenced by inflation is high, crime level becomes high as well.

Policy makers should work towards reducing criminal activities in the country by structuring monetary and economic policies which are aim at ensuring price stability. Policy makers should also take step to reducing unemployment, poverty, and corruption because they are unfavorable to economic growth.

It should be noted that when there is a high level of unemployment, there is an inclination of high crime rate because citizens out of frustration can pick up criminal activities as a means of livelihood.

According to Becker’s economic theory of crime, unemployed people are deprived of legal income resources and thus are more likely to derive some income from illegal activities.

“Unemployment has been used as a way to measure the relationship between poverty and crime because unemployment goes up or down with periods of economic depression or prosperity respectively.”

An increase in economic activities will help increase employment, reduce poverty and also reduce crime in Nigeria.

When people cannot afford the basic necessities of life, they may choose to go into criminal activities as a means of survival. Crime is a major cause of distress and insecurity in any society including Nigeria.

The rise in criminal activities in the Nation needs urgent attention because it reduces the sense of security in a country, thereby affecting economic development and growth as no investor would dabble into investing in a country where crime is prevalent with high rate of insecurity.

Crime could cause “emotional and psychological pain” on an individual and it upsets the “accumulation of physical, human, and social capital.”

Crime destroys the “social infrastructure and discourages” both domestic and foreign investments.

Crime has its way of destroying and depreciating the economy of a nation because it hinders sustainable growth and development.

Observers are of the view that the National Security Adviser, Babagana Monguno, a retired Nigerian military general to as a matter of urgency re-jig the nation’s security apparatus and do the needful for effective crime prevention and control, if the nation would not be taken over by the criminals and criminality