Police and Challenges of Crime Control in Uwie Community, Warri, Delta State, Nigeria

Abstract

There have been developments in situational and social crime prevention strategies in Uwie. Over the years, Nigeria armed forces are saddled with the problems of controlling crime in Uwie communities. Major challenges militating against effective crime control rest on political, economic, social diplomatic and climatic conditions. The police are appraised to have performed below expectations due to the above mentioned challenges and other factors such as cultural beliefs and practices, lack of selfless services/patriotism, insufficient facilities and poor remunerations. These challenges impact negatively on investors, members of Uwie community and the nation at large. Many researchers have documented poor administrative, technology and attitudes of officers. Challenges that borders on culture, environment and logistics are trivialized. Thus, this research explored the cultural, diplomatic and environmental factors militating against crime control in Uwie, Warri, Delta State, Nigeria. Explanations of core variables were anchored on structural functionalism and labeling theory. A total of 425 questionnaires were used to generate quantitative data among respondents. Qualitatively, in-depth interview and snow ball method was used to generate further information that complemented the questionnaire. Data was analyzed with the use of percentages, tables and chi-square. A total of (86%) respondents revealed that, Government reaction to the challenges of ineffective and inefficient control of crime is appalling. Absence of a coherent, articulate crime prevention and control policy in Nigeria according to (46.2%) weakens crime control. Thus, many prefer to guard private properties owned by the high class. Adopted crime control techniques yield poor result because of cultural, technological, diplomatic and expert discrepancies (67.4%).