Journal of Emerging Trends in Engineering and Applied Sciences: Research Areas

Article Title: Principal Component Analysis of Crime Rate in Nigeria: A Case Study of Ekiti and Osun States
by Ojo, J. F., Adeniran, Adefemi T., and Faweya, O.

Abstract:
Criminal activities of various forms are perpetrated both among the youths and the adult in Ekiti and Osun States. They are numerous and coherent and sometimes cumbersome to distinguish one from the others. In this study, statistical analyses showed that the commonly committed crimes in Ekiti State are theft and stealing, assault, armed robbery, burglary, murder and manslaughter, house breaking and grievous harm. The highest and commonly committed crimes in Osun State are assault, theft and stealing, house breaking, false pretence and cheating, grievous harm, armed robbery, breaching of public peace, receiving stolen property and store and office breaking. Principal component analysis (PCA) was used to reduce the dimensionality and the results revealed that the ?rst ?ve principal variables explained 66.77% of the total variation in Ekiti State. The first five principal variables in Ekiti State are theft and stealing, attempted murder, rape and defilement, kidnapping and arson. In Osun State, six principal variables explained 93.88% of the total variation. The six principal variables in Osun State are house breaking, other offences, grievous harm, unnatural offence, assault and kidnapping. The comparison of crime rate in the two states revealed that Osun State has the highest crime rate than Ekiti state. Hence, for sustainable development, there is the need for Nigeria government at all levels to provide maximum security services that will protect both life and properties of its citizens not only to Ekiti and OsunStates but entire country as a whole. Provision of free education for the poor, youth empowerment and employment opportunity that will create job opportunity for the idle people.

Keywords: criminal activities, principal components, dimensionality, total variation, scree plot

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