Geospatial Information System for Crime Analysis and Crime Zone Identification- Case Study of Katsina, Nigeria

Abstract

Growing interest in the use of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) has led to its application as a tool in numerous research fields of interest one of which is crime analysis and management. But the situation in Nigeria is at its infancy as the Law Enforcement Agents saddled with the responsibility of combating crime in Nigeria have little or no education on the use of Geospatial Information System and the maintenance of Geo-database in analysing and predicting crime occurrences, patterns and routes to crime spots. Hence, bogus investments by the Federal Government in National Security have not yielded commensurate rewards. Attempt has been made by this research to use GIS as a spatial tool to classify crime zones in Katsina Metropolis, Katsina state of Nigeria, with a view to create crime database of the study area. An analogue map of the study area of scale 1:15,000 and crime records of six years (January, 2004 to December, 2009) were used in the geospatial classification of the types of crime with respect to the spots of occurrences. Areas of high and low frequency of crime occurrence were also highlighted. The study revealed that there is a marked variation in the distribution of crime between and within the zones. Theft and stealing cases accounted for about 45.17% of the total crime cases between 2004 and 2009. Assault accounted for 8.85%, while armed robbery accounted for 8.71% and rape for 6.57%. Murder had 6.57% while House Breaking and Criminal force had 5.90% and 5.09% respectively. Other crime categories contributed less than 5% each.