1 The Roles of Routine Activity Theory on Crime Prevention in the Era of Terrorism in Nigeria

Abstract

This study explores the imperative roles of routine activity theory in crime prevention in the era of terrorism in Nigeria. It takes as a case study, the advent of Boko Haram terrorism in Northeast Nigeria; relying on availability of secondary data. Three objectives guided the study including: (i) Assessing factors responsible for the vulnerability of victims of terrorism in Northeast Nigeria. (ii) Finding out constraints to guardian in fighting terrorism in Northeast Nigeria, and (iii) exploring ways of fixing the phenomena of crime in era of terrorism in Northeast Nigeria. Findings revealed that, Boko Haram terrorists are opportunists who capitalized on the vulnerability of victims to unleash attacks. Poor and effective guardianship were found as high risk behavior responsible for vulnerability of victims. Certain other factors that sabotaged campaign for entrenching guardian by the Nigerian security personnel include the topographic structures of the area, unbridled corruption; poor weapons, porous border, tribalism and the leakage of classified security information. In order to address these problems, the study recommended among others, strengthening the security institutions, re-strategising on intelligence, mapping out communities for effective security including civilian/military collaboration, and well established vigilantes among the locals.