Study title

Evidence suggests that crimes committed in urban environments are geographically concentrated across a range of scales, and that the variation in rates of crime within an urban space is significantly dependent on the physical environment as well as the situation in which the crime takes place. However, these assertions are typically drawn from environmental criminological studies that have focussed on Euro-American cities and western intellectual perspectives. We seek to move beyond these by focussing on a second-tier city in sub-Saharan Africa (Kaduna, Nigeria), a context for which very little literature exists. The deposited dataset was used to examine the association between a range of street characteristics and the risk of residential burglary in Kaduna for the first time.

This mixed-methods research aims to bring together key development concerns related to sustainable livelihoods, social vulnerability, and poverty to build an alternative account of 'insecurity and crime' in African cities where the lines between legality and illegality, formality and informality, licit and illicit work, are often blurred in practice. We argue that the study of insecurity and crime in African cities requires a more nuanced understanding of African urbanisation patterns and historical legacies of uneven development. Situated at the nexus of population modelling, criminology, African studies, and urban geography, this project aims to challenge prevailing Euro-centric narratives of crime and victimisation through an innovative mixed-methods study. Combining statistical modelling, geovisualisation and ethnographic insights, the research aims to develop location appropriate approaches to investigate perceptions and seasonal trends of crime and victimisations in a West African city, situating the research within the broader context of African urbanisation, environment-induced seasonal migration, youth un-employment and informal economies.