The Level of Criminality in Upper and Lower Class Residential Areas in Accra. the Study of Cantonments and Jamestown

Essay from the year 2017 in the subject Sociology - Law, Delinquency, Abnormal Behavior, grade: -, University of Ghana, Legon (School of Social Sciences), course: Long Essay, language: English, abstract: This study investigates crime in two socioeconomically distinctive localities in Accra, Cantonments and Jamestown. Over the years, scholars in the field of crime studies have attempted to ascertain a link between levels of criminal activities and socioeconomic phenomena such as poverty. Despite the fact that the Ghana police service (GPS) claim that crime rates have been declining steadily over the years, crime remains a major threat to the lives and property of people in Ghana considering the fact that the nation struggles with poverty, economic inequality, the 'proliferation' of illicit drugs, arms etc. This study also addresses target hardening and the critical role it plays in protecting many civilians from being victims of criminal activity in their homes. The main theoretical perspective of the study is the situational crime prevention theory. This theory aims at finding out reasons why certain crimes occur at particular locations. For instance, why a crime like armed robbery or theft is prevalent in Cantonments or why physical assault is prevalent in Jamestown. Using situational crime prevention as a guide, this study attempts investigate the reasons why certain crimes occur at particular locations in Cantonments and Jamestown.Today, in order to properly deal with crime, it is important to know which crimes are frequent at a particular location be it an upper class residential area or a lower class residential area. Due to this reason, crime mapping through the use of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) plays a very crucial role in identifying crime hotspots. By so doing, it aids the appropriate authorities in combating crime. Over the course of this study, property crimes such as armed robbery and burglary were found to be more prevalent in upper class residential areas like Cantonments whereas non-property crimes such as physical assault and murder are more prevalent in lower class settlements like Jamestown. It was also discovered that, highly sophisticated target hardening measures were more common in upper class residential areas like Cantonments. This study like the 'Crime-poverty nexus' studies by Owusu, Oteng-Ababio, et.al, (2016) recommends that crime prevention measures carried out by the police and other authorities must be place specific. This is because the unique socioeconomic circumstances of a locality determines the types of crime which are prevalent in that locality.