AN ASSESSMENT OF THE ROLE OF COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION IN CRIME PREVENTION AND CONTROL IN BAUCHI LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF BAUCHI STATE

This research work assesses the role of rural communities in controlling crime in Bauchi Local government area. Many rural communities in Nigeria have witnessed crimes of various descriptions Bauchi Local Government not an exception. Thus, crime is becoming a problem in contemporary Nigeria. The police who are the primary agent in the fight against crime are ineffective. Their ineffectiveness may be as a result of the fact that they are under-staffed, under- equipped, and corrupt and lacked public cooperation. These have created problem of under policing in Nigeria including Bauchi Local government. Thus, raping, kidnapping arm robbery are committed on daily basis without detection and prosecution in Bauchi Local government. The research work adopted Broken window theory and Routine Activity theory to guide the research assumption. The research equally adopted survey design, in which a cluster sampling technique was used to select (120) respondents out of the total population of Bauchi Local Government Area. Equally simple percentage was used to analyzed the obtained data. The study found that: armed robbery is not committed in daily basis in the study area, kidnapping is one of the crime committed in the study area, raping is not committed in daily basis in the study area. But there are some incidences of raping in the study area, drug abuse is common among the populace of Bauchi Local government and that stealing is rampant in Bauchi local government. Bauchi local government control crime through the use of Vigilante Groups and other rural groups, the elders councils was one of the mean through which Bauchi local government control crimes in the area, village heads office is one of the means of controlling crime in Bauchi local government and that Bauchi local government had well institution for controlling and curtailing crime in the area. The study therefore recommended that: The security agencies in crime control should work closely with community members who should comprise of the community leaders, youths and residents within every community to ensure that crime does not flourish in their areas. The spirit of patriotism should be instilled through re-value orientation so that every citizen should be on a watch out. Keywords: Crime control, rural communities, vigilante groups and community policing