Investigating the Impact of Crime Reporting on Crime Control in Gwagwalada Area Council Abuja North Central Nigeria

Worldwide the number of under reported crimes to law enforcement agents are on the increasing trend though it nevertheless more pervasive in developing nations particularly in Nigeria. This is due a number of facts such as lack of trust to law enforcement agents’ fear of reprisal attacks by the offenders etc. This research was therefore set up to examines the impact of crime reporting as a panacea to crime control in Gwagwalada Area Council Abuja; specifically, the objective was to find out if reporting crime reduces criminal activities in Gwagwalada area council and identify the prime factors that hinder victims or witness of crime to report crime in Gwagwalada Area council of Nigeria. Theoretically this research adopted the Socio- Ecological Theory as its major thrust of the study. A research design is applied i.e. called descriptive which was used in the study. The research methodology includes selection and analysis of 220 administered questionnaires to selected study samples. Interview for this study was held with 10 Police officers. Findings of the study revealed (amongst others) that there is low crime reportage in Gwagwalada Area Council, also that violent crimes are mostly reported crimes to the police. In addition, further to these findings, this study concludes that reporting crimes will reduce criminal activities in the area. It is however recommending (among others) that the government particularly the law enforcement agents should persistently carry out enlightenment campaign to the citizens on significance of crime reporting.