A framework for exploring banditry in Nigeria

Nigeria has garnered international attention for the increase in frequency and severity of bandit attacks over the past decade. Bandits have attacked a variety of different places throughout Nigeria and have killed thousands of Nigerians. The problem of banditry has grown to be a major security concern across Nigeria. While much information is known about this phenomenon, there is no database with which to systematically explore this problem. This dissertation applies the crime science framework to explore banditry in Nigeria to analyze and understand situational components around this problem. The crime science framework outlines five tenets related to crime to include underlying dispositions and the immediate situation influence crime, choice as an active part of crime, the immediate situation directly influences crime, recognition of the law of crime concentration, and altering certain facilitating mechanisms can prevent crime. Availability and access to data is necessary for the application of this framework. Through a review of around 1,200 publications, a banditry in Nigeria dataset was collected which included 992 instances of banditry that occurred over the last half century. This study analyzed the banditry in Nigeria dataset in various ways to better understand and identify the relevant situational components of the problem. This process included spatially and temporally analyzing banditry and highlighting the immediate environment related to bandit attacks. The results reveal that spatial concentrations of banditry were found to be prevalent; however, temporal patterns were not found. These findings are due to the fact that banditry is an all-inclusive term for various criminal acts at different places with various targets. This illustrates the importance of utilizing the crime science framework and resulting analysis to discern specific components and dynamics related to the study and exploration of criminal activity. As a result, this paper presents a banditry typology that provides a guide to disaggregating banditry. Different situational crime prevention mechanisms are presented to address each type of banditry as outlined in the typology. Banditry causes destruction and devastation of entire communities, and intervention mechanisms should focus on engaging affected communities and adopting prevention practices at a local level.