Burglary on the Rise: Street Life and Motivation for Residential Break-Ins in Amagba Community, Southern Nigeria

Abstract

The paper examines essentially, residential break-ins in Amagba community, Southern Nigeria. The high incidence and prevalence of this social malaise particularly in developing areas – suburban in Southern Nigeria has become intriguing and of grave concern to the society. The qualitative and quantitative techniques were employed to collect data from three hundred and fifty respondents. The frequency distribution table and simple percentage were employed to analyse the data collected from the field, while the qualitative data was content analysed. The study revealed that motivation for residential break-ins were multifaceted. Unemployment/economic recession, peer group influence, quest for quick money and expensive life style were some of the factors responsible for the incidence of burglary. The study suggests that burglar alarms should be installed in residential dwellings, the police should establish their presence in the community and government should create jobs for the unemployed youths in the society.

Keywords: Break-ins, residential premises, suburban, developing areas.