Thursday 23 June 2011

Press Release: Commencement of 2011 National Crime and Safety Survey


Introduction


The CLEEN Foundation wishes to announce the commencement of the 2011 edition of its National Crime and Safety Survey. The survey will last for three weeks, covering the 36 states of Nigeria and Abuja, the Federal Capital.

Sampling and Method of Survey

Ten thousand respondents will be interviewed in their homes using personal face-to-face interview and multi-stage sampling technique. To ensure adequate representation of adult Nigerian population, probability sampling procedure will be used to neutralize any known form of bias that may affect the findings of the study. Respondents will be males and females, age 18 years and above.  Interviews will be conducted throughout week days and weekends, to ensure that respondents of all lifestyles are included in the sample.

Required information will be collected using structured close-ended questionnaire. The preference for closed-ended questions is informed by the fact they are less time consuming for the respondents to complete and can be easily be keyed into the computer. The questionnaire is designed to capture respondents’ household/personal experiences of crime victimization, human rights violations, road accidents; perceptions of safety; police/security agencies response to crime and general perception of crime and the criminal justice system. The questionnaire is divided into 10 sections.  Sections 1-3 deal with respondents’ experiences of crime victimization including sexual crimes. Section 4 is on economic and financial crimes with special focus on measuring levels of corruption in the country over the past three years. Section 5 focuses on fear of crime and perception of safety, measuring how fearful the respondents are of becoming a victim of any type of crime and its impact on their social behaviour. Section 6 looks at community response to crime, trying to find out the measures the respondents take to protect themselves in their homes. Section 7 is road safety and accidents, looking at the level of road accidents in Nigeria and respondents attitudes to road safety issues. Section 8 measures public perception of governments and trust in public authorities in Nigeria. Section 9 is on general perception of crime and criminal justice institutions. Finally, section 10 provides questions that would enable quantitative assessment of human rights
situation in Nigeria.

Objectives

The objectives of the survey are to:

•       Generate reliable complementary data to official statistics on crime, crime levels, perceptions of safety, as well as their geographic, gender and socioeconomic distributions, which would the police, Federal Road Safety Commission and other law enforcement 
agencies in better deployment of resources.
•       Assess the level of community interest and involvement in crime prevention and crime target hardening measures.
•       Assess attitude of members of the public to justice institutions

The Importance of Crime Victimization Surveys

Crime victimization surveys are conducted around the world because of problems associated with official statistics on crimes. Official crime statistics produced by the police, prisons and the courts are the indicators of criminality and victimization commonly available in most societies. However, such statistics often do not present the whole picture of crime due to dark figures (unreported crimes) and grey figures (reported but unrecorded crimes). In response to the deficiencies associated with official statistics on crime, criminologists developed the crime victimization survey, which involves the study of a sample of a given population to obtain data on the extent of criminal victimization during a particular period, usually during the past year - whether or not detected by or reported
to the police.

Questionnaires are designed to gather information on respondents’ experience of criminal victimization. The surveys provide rich data for understanding the distribution of criminal victimization and the socio-demographic characteristics of victims and criminals; offer information for better understanding of criminality; and consequences of victimization; and extent of fear of crime among different groups in different study locations.

Field Administration of Questionnaire

The field administration of the survey questionnaire is being carried out by the Practical Sampling International (PSI), a reputable social research firm that has worked with the CLEEN Foundation over the years and has conducted similar surveys local and international organizations.

Our Appeal

We appeal to members of the public to welcome the respondents when they visit and provide truthful answers to the questions asked as they will help policy makers in formulation of better policies on crime and safety issues in Nigeria. If in doubt of the identity of the interviewers please contact the survey coordinator, Ms. Shola Omotosho at the following number: 0803-5054066 or e-mail address: shola.omotosho@cleen.org.

If you are interested in receiving summary report of the findings please contact us.

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