The Nexus among Unemployment, Poverty and Crime in Contemporary Nigeria

Abstract

Unemployment and poverty have been the major causes of crime in developing countries, Nigeria inclusive. The main objective of this paper was to show the connections among unemployment, poverty and crime in Nigeria. It also examined unemployment and poverty rates in Nigeria. The research design adopted for this paper is cross-sectional and explanatory. The paper adopted conceptual framework to show the nexus among the concepts. It used secondary sources of data collection and data analysis was based on content analysis. The study revealed that there is a strong link between unemployment, poverty and crime in Nigeria. The relationship among the concepts is bi-directional. Unemployment has adverse effect on poverty and crime rate. So also poverty negatively affects unemployment and crime rates. Increase in crime rates leads to increase in unemployment and poverty. The paper therefore recommended amongst others that the rate of unemployment must reduce if poverty and crime must reduce. Also the rate of unemployment can be reduced through provision of jobs which will consequently reduce the rate of poverty and also make crime unattractive on the long run.