ASSESSMENT OF CRIME PREVENTION MECHANISMS IN PUBLIC BUILDINGS IN AKWA IBOM STATE OF NIGERIA

The occurrence of crime is very rampant in the Nigerian society and its multi-dimensional nature is athreat to both national and individual security, safety and development. This paper argued that theenvironment and building could be designed to deter, delay, detect and deny access to unauthorisedusers thereby preventing crime. The research methodology adopted for the study was surveyresearch method. Purposive sampling was used. Observation of facilities in legislative and judiciarycomplexes was undertaken. The findings revealed that only basic crime prevention mechanisms wereapplied. Critical and important anti-terrorism and high profile crime prevention mechanisms such asprotective glazing, vehicle access control systems and barriers among others were not appliedleaving the facilities vulnerable to criminal actions involving use of light arms. The test of hypothesesusing chi-square with significance at 0.05 revealed that the application of the mechanisms dependedon the type of facility. The study concluded that the public buildings and the users in the study areawere not adequately secured against high profile criminal actions. It recommended appropriateupgrading of the existing facilities and use of relevant crime prevention mechanisms that can impacton terrorism and general crime prevention through proper collaboration among professionalstakeholders.