Approaches to Generating Criminal Profiling by the Nigeria Police Force: A Study of the Kwara State Police Headquarters, Ilorin.
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Date
2023-03
Authors
Isiaka, Monsurat
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Department of Criminology and Security Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ilorin, Ilorin
Abstract
Criminal profiling is an important instrument in the identification of crime suspects. Its use and application provide assistance to criminal justice professionals in the investigation of crimes, especially violent crimes. It is particularly of great value in solving crime cases, getting clues about crime suspects as well as discovering their locations. There are various manners and methods of generating profiles of criminals such as from scenes of crime, reports of victims and witnesses as well as the suspects themselves. Although these approaches are documented and widely applied in most developed countries, the approaches used in Nigeria are not known. Against this backdrop, this paper seeks to explore the approaches to generating criminal profiling applied by the Nigeria police and compare them with the ones used in developed countries. The study was inspired by routine activities theory. Top-cadre police officers were purposively sampled and interviewed. Results revealed that the approaches to generating criminal profiling employed in Nigeria are quite alien to the ones in advanced countries even though there appears to be a lack of documented literatures on them. These approaches are not known because there are no visible evidences of their application, particularly the lack of modern equipment, technology and trained personnel. Thus, the study recommends that the Nigerian government should invest more on technologies as well as regular training and retraining of police officers, provide functional database systems, fully-equipped forensic laboratories, advanced and sophisticated tools or equipment.
Description
Qualitative study
Keywords
criminal profiling, criminal justice, police, approaches, identification, Nigeria
Citation
Isiaka, M. (2023): Approaches to Generating Criminal Profiling by the Nigeria Police Force: A Study of the Kwara State Police Headquarters, Ilorin. Ilorin Journal of Criminology and Security Studies. 1(1); 34-45, Published by Department of Criminology and Security Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Nigeria.