IMPACT OF PROPERTY CRIME ON SOCIOECONOMIC AND PSYCHOLOGICAL WELL-BEING OF VICTIMS IN WUKARI LGA OF TARABA STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

Crime has registered its presence across society, thus depositing varyingproportions of effects on victims. As crime exerts its toll on socioeconomic and psychologicalstates of victims, it becomes expedient to interrogate its forms; and the level of damage it hascaused to victims. This study aimed to assess the effects of property crime victimisation onvictims’ socioeconomic and psychological conditions in the Wukari LGA of Taraba State.The objectives of the study were to assess the effect of property crime victimization on thesocioeconomic condition of victims and to ascertain the effect of property crime victimizationon post-traumatic stress disorder of victims. The survey design was adopted for the study.Questionnaires were used to collect primary data. The Cochran sample size determinationformula was used to generate 385 samples. A multi-stage sampling technique was used toselect respondents across clusters of settlements to complete the questionnaire. At thedescriptive level, simple frequencies and percentages were used. Additionally, inferentialstatistics such as Chi-square tests and ANOVA were used to test the research hypotheses. Thedescriptive review revealed that, burglary crime was the most perpetuated form of propertycrime. Victims of property crime faced social, economic and psychological challenges.Poverty and financial loss, decreased investment, difficulty in forgetting scenes of attack andthe development of intrusive memory, negative thinking and mood were devastating. The chi-square results (X 2=22.373, 12, P<.05) revealed that; property crime had a significant effecton victims’ socioeconomic status. Additionally, the ANOVA results revealed a significanteffect of property crime on insomnia [F (3, 371) =3.704, P=0.012] and the loneliness andavoidance attitudes of victims [F (3,371) =2.849, P=0.037]. The study recommendedfinancial and material compensation for victims of property crime, including counselling,improved security of lives and property and institutional measures to reduce unemploymentand breach the poverty gap so that perpetrators of property crime would be kept at bay.