Availability and use of weapons in the neighbourhood as risk factors for criminal offending among prison inmates in Nigeria

Abstract

The current study recruited participants from among the prison inmates in Nigeria to determine the relative impacts of availability and use of weapons in their respective communities prior to incarceration as risk factors for criminal offending. Eight hundred and twenty one participants made up of those awaiting trial and convicts, ranging in age from 16 to 65 years (M= 30.4, SD= 7.6) were recruited through opportunistic (non probability) sampling across ten medium and maximum security prisons in Nigeria to participate in the study. Adopting the quantitative analysis, the computed outcomes predict the effects of weapon availability as potential risk factors to criminal offending among this group. The implications of the findings for crime reduction policy in targeting offenders who are at risk of committing criminal offences due to weapon availability are emphasised.