THE POLYTECHNIC, IBADAN

DEPARTMENT OF URBAN AND REGIONAL

PLANNING
1ST INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
THEME:
CITIES IN TRANSITION: BUILDING RESILIENCE AND
ADAPTATION

DATE: 8TH – 10TH OCTOBER 2013

VENUE: NORTH CAMPUS ASSEMBLY HALL,
THE POLYTECHNIC, IBADAN
NEIGHBOURHOOD INCIVILITIES AND
INSECURITY PROBLEMS IN IBADAN,
NIGERIA: TOWARDS FIXING THE
BROKEN WINDOWS

LAWAL Kolawole Adebayo and OGUNDIRAN O. Roberts

Department of Urban and Regional Planning,

The Polytechnic, Ibadan, Nigeria.
tplklaw@gmail.com
INTRODUCTION
The incivility supposition posit that neighbourhood
physical and social disorder / incivilities such as dirty
environment, youth gangs, prostitution, weak social ties
and control, poor housing condition and a host of others
have direct relationship with crime occurrence within a
neighbourhood (Wilson and Kelling, 1982, Skogan 1999).
Uncivil behaviour and disorder directly contribute to the
experience of crime and the fear of crime within a
neighbourhood.
Neighbourhood incivilities is used to describe such physical and
social environmental problems such as litter and dirt in public
places, abandoned vehicles on the streets, poor housing and
infrastructure condition, blocked drainage and a host of others
as well as public order problems such as drug use and sale,
violence and drunkenness.

With major emphasis on crime / fear of crime, this study seeks to

test the assumption that neighbourhood disorder and incivility
are strongly related to insecurity problem in urban
neighbourhood.
Land use map of Ibadan showing the locations of the
selected Residential neighbourhoods
• Data was collected from two randomly
selected neighbourhoods – Ekotedo and
Oluyole to represent the High and low
density residential neighbourhoods
respectively.

• 150 households were selected from each

neighbourhood to determine their socio-
economic and physical characteristics as
well as their state of incivility and
insecurity.
 Correlation analysis was conducted using
Pearson’s correlation with the main variables
being: level of crime victimization and nine (9)
indicators of social incivilities.
People using or dealing in drugs
Teenagers hanging out on the street
Vandalism and Youth violence
Pick-pockets in the neighbourhood
Youth gangs in the neighbourhood
Presence of prostitute on the street
Presence of known unsafe points
Neighbourhood is Unsafe during the day
Neighbourhood is Unsafe at night
Do you report any strange movement or disorder to the police
 CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
Broken window Theory
The central of the Broken window thesis was that disorder, if left
unchecked, causes serious crime. The term “broken windows” is a
metaphor which it argues that just as a broken window left
untended to is a sign that nobody cares and invites more windows
to be broken, so disorderly behaviour left untended to is a sign
that there is no neighbourhood social control and leads to fear of
crime, more serious crime and, ultimately, urban decay (Wilson
and Kelling, 1982).
 Neighbourhood incivility assessment in Residential neighbourhoods of Ibadan
EKOTEDO OLUYOLE
YES (%) NO (%) Incivility YES (%) NO (%) Score
Score

1 People using or dealing in drugs 78.8 21.2 118 2.6 97.4 3

2 Teenagers hanging out on the street 63.5 36.5 96 0 100 0
3 Vandalism and Youth violence 53.9 46.1 81 0 100 0
4 Pick-pockets in the neighbourhood 57.3 42.7 86 16.2 82.7 24
5 Youth gangs in the neighbourhood 66.0 34.0 99 0 100 0
6 Presence of prostitute on the street 69.3 30.7 104 0 100 0
7 Presence of known unsafe points 81.2 18.8 122 0 100 0
8 Neighbourhood is Unsafe during the day 57.7 42.3 87 6.6 93.4 10
9 Neighbourhood is Unsafe at night 62.4 37.6 94 10.2 89.8 15
10 Do you report any strange movement or disorder to 36.8 63.2 - 94.5 5.5 -
the police

TOTAL INCIVILITY SCORE 887 52

 Crime situation in the neighbourhoods
EKOTEDO (%) OLUYOLE (%)
Crime victimization
Yes 67.7 16.4
No 32.3 83.6
Nature and occurrence of crime
Burglary etc (Property crime) 22.5 59.2
Theft / Armed Robbery (Violent crime) 66.7 34.4
Rape / Sexual harassment 10.8 6.4
Location within the neighbourhoods where crime occur
In respondents house 39.6 52.3
In someone else house 18.9 11.1
At work place 5.2 35.5
On the street within the neighbourhood 36.3 1.2
Major Crime prevention measures
Special windows / Door + Burglar proof 22.6 32.4
Joint Neighbourhood watch / Vigilante 53.0 2.6
Private security guards 3.1 40.2
Dogs 4.3 21.6
Traditional methods (charms) 4.7 0
Combination of methods above 12.3 3.2
Correlations analysis of insecurity and incivility factors in Ibadan
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

1 Crime occurrence and fear of crime 1

2 People using / dealing in drugs .811** 1

3 Teenagers hanging out on street .640** .978** 1

4 Presence of vandalism .490** .629** .795** 1

5 Presence of pick-pocket .493** .596** .604** .699** 1

6 Presence of known unsafe points .234** .505** .634** .526** .577** 1

7 Presence of youth gangs .773** .610** .141* .134* .467** .086 1

8 Presence of Prostitutes on the street .273** .210** .141* .134* .467** .072 .362* 1

N = 300
** Correlation is significant at < 0.01 level (2-tailed).
* Correlation is significant at < 0.05 level (2-tailed).
• After ranking of the incivility variables in the
neighbourhoods, Ekotedo was found to have higher
disorder and incivility level than Oluyole which exhibited
high level of social control.
• The analyses revealed significant relationships between
crime / fear of crime as a measure of insecurity and all
the nine neighbourhood disorder and incivility variables,
with correlation coefficient ranging from r = .234 to r =
.811 significant at p<0.001.
• Majority of the incivility variables also indicated a
strong association among themselves, indicating that a
disorder left uncontrolled serves as magnet for another
more serious disorder.
 Conclusion & Recommendation:
The paper concluded that urban
neighbourhood can be made resilient to
insecurity problems if adequate attention
is given to solving the problems of
neighbourhood incivilities and
enthronement of social control.