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Spatial Typology of Crimes in Bamenda Urbanscape, Cameroon

Clarkson M. Wanie, Reeves M. Fokeng*, Divine D. Fenjoh

Department of Geography and Planning, Faculty of Arts, The University of Bamenda, Cameroon

Abstract: Over the years, the urban space of Bamenda has experienced a significant surge in crimes in tandem with the prevailing socio-political crisis which has fan the flames for urban disorders and odds. The study aimed to investigate various types of crimes, their spatial distribution, spatial variation/density as well as hotspots in Bamenda urbanscape. The study used questionnaires and key informant interviews to collect quantitative and qualitative data. Spatialisation of urban crime types and manifestation was done in a GIS environment using thematic mapping techniques. Four crime categories/types and their sub-classes were identified; violent crimes (805), property crimes (312), organised crimes (452) and white-collar crimes (76) registered cases as on annual basis, with varying intensities from CBD to the suburbs. Of these recurrent crimes within the urban space, seven neighbourhoods were found to be potential crime hotspots with rising annually recorded crimes. Alongside their annually estimated crimes are; Mobile Nkwen (331), Commercial Avenue (301), Mile 4 Nkwen (213), Ntamulung (237), Rendez-vous (245) Azire New church (196) and Below Foncha (122). The study suggest proper collaboration between the city dwellers and the police for early identification and sourcing of crime scenes through video surveillance and the enforcement of policing within crime hotspot zones as a palliative to curb crimes in Bamenda.

Keywords: Urbanisation, urban crimes, safety, security, crime clusters, spatial variation, planning implications

Received November 12, 2020; Revised December 13, 2020; Accepted December 20, 2020

Citation: Clarkson M. Wanie, Reeves M. Fokeng, Divine D. Fenjoh, Spatial Typology of Crimes in Bamenda Urbanscape, Cameroon. Journal of City and Development, 2 (1). 7-17. January 2020. doi:10.12691/jcd-2-1-2

1. Introduction

In the last five decades the world has witnessed an unprecedented rate of population growth, at about 1.2 percent per annum, accompanied by an urban explosion. While urban growth has stabilised in North and South America and Europe, with about 75 percent of the population living in urban areas, the developing countries of Africa and Asia, with 37.3 percent and 36 percent urban populations respectively, are in for a major demographic shift [1]. The world’s population will soon be more than half urban, with projected urban growth in developing countries in the order of 1.2 billion people between 2000 and 2020 [2]. With 3 out of 6 billion people now living in cities and towns, the world is primarily urban and by 2030, Africa will also follow this urbanization trend, and cease to be a rural continent. Africa is on the move and the rapid urbanisation of the continent has to be recognised both for its potential problems and its genuine possibilities [1]. Urban areas are regarded as centres of opportunities that have become engines for economic growth, centres of diversity and changes [3]. In the last decade or so, the world has witnessed increasing numbers of threats to urban safety and security [2]. While some of these threats have taken the form of dramatic events, many have been manifestations of the nexus of urban poverty and inequality with the physical, economic, social and institutional conditions of slums [1,2]. Safety from crime and violence - including the resulting fear and insecurity - is increasingly being acknowledged internationally as a public good, as well as a basic human right [4].

Urban stability and sustainability has been connected to safety of securing and policing of urban areas [3]. Urban crime and violence in countries in all regions, regardless of level of development, have led to increasing debate about how to address its origins and impacts [2]. Crime and insecurity are among the factors that threaten quality of life and social and economic stability [5]. Globally crime incidence has steadily increased over the 1980-2000 period, rising about 30 percent, from 2300 to over 3000 crimes per 100,000 inhabitants [2]. The rapid urbanization has created numerous social problems, among which is crime that became a common phenomenon in urban areas in both developed and developing nations [3]. The alarming surge of crime and violence in Mexico, Rio or Sao Paulo during the last 20 years or so might indeed be the result of an excessively rapid growth of these ‘gigapolises’ [6]. As urban areas become larger, the rate of crime in these areas increases [7].

From the viewpoint of urban pathology, it is always expected to have more crime in cities [8] as widely perceived by criminologists. Variation in crime rates is found within countries, between rural areas and cities, and between cities of different sizes, with higher rates within larger cities [9]; [2] and this situation has been relatively pervasive for several centuries [9]. Many developing countries are plagued not just by ordinary volume crimes, but also by culturally-sanctioned violence against women and gays and serious forms of transnational crime such as sex trafficking, drug trafficking, murderous incursions by militias, and theft of natural resources including valuable minerals, endangered animals, fish stocks and timber [10]. Organised crimes, drug trafficking and terrorist networks for example, have become a growing global presence, undermining public security in many cities [11]. The cities of Africa are also fast becoming centres of crime [1]. Some cities, especially in Latin America and Africa, are struggling with high levels of violence that undermine the very foundations of the economic and social development of the entire population. In some cases, areas of the city have deteriorated into “no-go zones” that undermine the overall governance of the area and trap the poorest population in a dangerous cycle of poverty and violence [12], further exacerbating urban poverty and inequalities. The transfer of rural poverty to urban areas eventually contributes to the emergence of increasing crimes in the new areas [8].

Recent unimaginable levels of the world urbanization coincides with rise in urban crimes in many parts of the world, as the rate of unemployment had been on the increase and coupled with increased poverty among the urban poor [3]. High levels of income inequality, rapid urbanisation, a high share of unemployed youth in the population, poorly resourced criminal justice systems, and the proliferation of firearms are all strongly associated with crime [13]. Crime and violence are typically more severe in urban areas and are compounded by their rapid growth as shown by a recent study that 60 per cent of urban dwellers in developing and transitional countries have been victims of crime over a five-year period, with victimization rates reaching 70 per cent in parts of Latin American Countries and Africa [4].

Today the global urban space is faced with a new paradigm shift in crime manifestation; that of globalisation of crimes with its transnational and multinational ramifications. This paradigm shift at the global scale is clearly manifested in organised crimes. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime [13], reported that the growth in international commerce and transport has made Africa, with its weak enforcement capacity and underpaid officials, an ideal conduit through which to extract and tranship a range of illicit commodities. Increasingly, Africa is being used to route drugs destined for other markets, and, consequently, it is becoming a destination site with a growing consumer base [14]. In recent years, transnational organized crime in West Africa, or perpetrated by West Africans elsewhere in the world, has become a matter of major international concern [14]. A Global Initiative against Transnational Organised Crime study of 2015 recognised that organised crime could directly and significantly impact the ability to achieve 23 of the 169 SDG targets [15].

The past decade, in particular, has seen advances in analytical capabilities within the criminal justice community, making it possible to add more geographic and social dimensions to statistical analyses to forecast where crimes are likely to occur [16]. While previous studies have investigated city planning with respect to land use and the environment, land use and wetlands, water supply patterns and urban green space development, an important aspect which lacks scientific rigor relates to the nature and spatial variations in urban crime and their implications for urban planning [17]. There has been limited research on the spatial typology and/or categorisation of crimes occurring across African urban spaces in general and Cameroon in particular. The typology of crimes in Bamenda urbanscape is diverse and varied. Crimes seemingly show spatial variations in which some neighbourhoods are more affected than others [17]. This study thus investigated the typology of crimes in Bamenda urbanscape, its spatial density and hotspots.

2. Study Area and Methods

2.1. Study Area

Bamenda is the largest town in Mezam Division and serves as the regional headquarters of the North West Region. It is located between latitudes 5°51’0’’ and 6°3’0’’ North of the Equator and longitudes 10°3’0’’ and 10°15’0’’ East of the Greenwich Meridian. It is bounded to the North by Tubah Subdivision, to the South by Santa Subdivision, to the West by Mbengwi Subdivision, to the South West by Bali Subdivision and to the North East by Bafut Subdivision (Figure 1). The city as of 2016 was termed a near millionaire city [19].

2.2. Materials and Methods

In its methods, a key informant survey with an interview guide preceded the field. The key informants included mainly the head of judicial services or police stations (Commissioners of police) across the urban space. These service heads or police commissioners aided in the identification of crime hotspots and/or crime ridden neighbourhoods within the town based on annual crime scenes and judicial records. This information was used to map the major crime hotspots within the town. From this analysis, a total of 90 questionnaires were purposively administered to selected households of such crime ridden neighbourhoods aimed at getting respondents viewpoints regarding recurrent crimes in the vicinity. With the aid of QGIS 3.14, spatial crime maps were produced based on police records as per crime hotspots. The main cartographic methods used were diagram and proportional cycles thematic maps to show spatial variations and clustering respectively.

Figure 1. Location of Bamenda Urbanscape in Bamenda 1, 2 and 3 municipalities

3. Results and Discussions

3.1. Typology of Crimes in Bamenda Urbanscape

The results from analysis revealed four major crime categories in Bamenda urbanscape. These crimes included; violent crimes, property crimes, organised and white-collar crimes (Table 1 and Figure 2). It is observed that property crimes dominated the urban space in terms of annual occurrence. The rate of burglary (property breaking) is established at 50.96% with 159 cases per year, while arson (property burning) is occurring at 27.88% rate with 89 cases per annum, while vehicle theft is at 21.15% with 67 annually registered case (Table 1). Some crime dominant areas/quarters like Ntamulung and Below Foncha have been reputed with high rates of kidnapping and robbery. In Ntamulung, more than 70 cases of kidnapping have been registered while below Foncha has recorded 43 cases or more at the time of the study. In the past five years, these zones were free of kidnapping and assaults as compared to other crime dominant areas. Mobile Nkwen is the major organised crime scene in Bamenda with more than 95 cases of prostitution, 45 cases of gambling and 40 cases of illegal drug deals annually (Table 1). The general trend of organised crimes in Bamenda urban include; 29.42% rate of prostitution, 35.62% gambling and 34.96% illegal drug deals. In addition, the distribution of violent crimes also varied. The rates of sexual assaults and rape are established at 15.40% and 8.32% respectively with a corresponding 124 and 67 cases registered per year. Other sub-crime categories of violent crimes like kidnapping and robbery have an incidence rate of 39.38% and 36.89% across the urban space. However, white-collar crimes seem to have a lower incidence rate with fraud dominating corruption. In detail, out of the 74 cases registered in 2019, more than 67 cases are as a result of fraud and cheating including scamming. But only 7 cases of corruption in institutions have been registered. It is observed that the general trend of these crimes is increasing with the prevalence of the Anglophone crisis that has created a wave of internally displaced persons and joblessness, hence, the insurgence of urban crimes linked to rising urban populations caught in urban poverty, unemployment, inequality and urban discomfort.

Table 1. Major crime categories and rate of estimated annual occurrence in Bamenda Urbanscape

Figure 2. Land use and spatial typology of crimes in Bamenda Urbanscape

Figure 3. The spatial concentration of property crimes within Bamenda

Spatial crime concentration is also with respect to land use. Organized crimes mainly cluster within the city centre as with the zones of Mobile Nkwen and Commercial Avenue, whereas violent crimes increase with distance from city centre. Crime zones like Mile 4 Nkwen, Ntamulung, Below Foncha and Rendez-vous mostly in the peri-urban areas have been plagued with violent crimes of all sorts (Figure 3). These are areas recording the largest number of kidnapping cases on annual basis in accordance with the current socio-political climate and rising insecurity within the urban space. Property crimes, especially property breaking and arson have a city-centre connection (Figure 3). The neighbourhoods of Azire New Church, Commercial Avenue, Rendez-vous, Ntamulung and Mobile Nkwen have recorded the highest occurrence of property breaking and arson in alliance with the ongoing socio-political crisis recking the regional metropolis. In a similar manner, organised crimes have a city-centre concentration. Similar crime typology have been reported in the city by [17] and in nieghbouring Nigeria. [20] reported that major crimes in Nigeria include rape, kidnapping, murder, burglary, fraud, terrorism, robbery, cyber-crimes, bribery and corruption and money laundering.

3.2. Spatial Variation of Crimes

Crime rates vary across space and time. As such it is essential to segregate periods of high crime occurrence over space.

3.2.1. Trends of Recurrent Crimes

Findings showed that crime rates are increasing in Bamenda urban area with theft registering 68% followed by Arson (55%), burglary (45%) and kidnapping (44%). It is observed from respondent perceptions that crimes in Bamenda is greatly increasing at somewhat 70% (Figure 4).

According to the Cameroon Safety Report, the trend of crime rate is increasing with simple and aggravated theft ranging at 67% rate of occurrence. Separatist-related attacks on public transportation and infrastructure have also taken place since 2018 in the Anglophone regions, including blocking of roads, destruction of bridges, stopping of vehicles, and even violence against motorists [18].

Figure 4. Trends of crimes in Bamenda Urbanscape

Income inequality is blamed for being the main driver of violent crime by the majority of the literature [21] as explained by rising trends of homicide. [22] reported a significant impact of poverty, inequitable income growth and low quality of the legal system on incidence of property-related crimes. [4] reported high occurrence rates of burglary in Africa with victimization rates of over 8 per cent of the population being partly motivated by poverty. Escalating robbery rates have also been reported for developing countries [4,23]. [24] recounted the various factors driving urban crimes in developing countries to include population growth, unemployment, poverty, political forces, implementation of law and management issues, lack of resources, and freedom of arms. The proliferation of arms is partly responsible for fuelling urban crimes in most crisis hit developing cities in Sub-Saharan Africa. High unemployment and an under-equipped police force continue to fuel criminality in Yaounde, Douala, and other cities [18] in Cameroon. Also, high population density of urban neighbourhoods and urban poverty/income inequality are partly responsible for rising violent and property crimes within the urban space. [25] established that, high density offers opportunities for property crimes, given that it is a surrogate for the distribution of private property, much of which offers attractive targets to thieves. [17] reported that neighbourhoods in the Bamenda Urbanscape that are characterised by poor socio-economic conditions of power failure, inaccessibility and poor housing conditions are more prone to urban crimes like prostitution, violence, murder, rape, theft and assault.

3.2.2. Daily and seasonal Variation of Crimes

Investigations showed that crime rates vary daily and seasonally in Bamenda as confirmed by 85% of the respondents. Findings revealed that crime rates are high during late evening hours (50%) and during the end of year festive periods (61%) respectively (Table 2 and Figure 5).

Table 2. Perception on the rate of crime variation per day and season

Figure 5. Daily and seasonal periods of crime variation

The study of [17] also revealed that peak crime periods are observed especially at night. Such crime periods are also registered during weekends and during vacations/holidays with an end of year festivity connotation. It is also observed that sexual offences in neighbourhoods like Mobile Nkwen is on the rise due to increased drinking spots and clubs while an unusual increase in robbery crimes is observed during the festive periods. [18] also attests to the fact that arm conflicts arising from the Anglophone crisis is a recent attribute of concern that has raised high crime rates incidence and prevalence throughout Bamenda.

3.2.3. Crime Variation from the Suburbs to Central Business District (CBD)

There exist spatial variations in the distribution and typology of urban crimes. This is mostly visible when comparisons are made between urban and rural areas. Findings showed that crimes are occurring in the CBD at the rate of 34% (Figure 6). This explains the reason for the regular prevalence of the crimes.

Most of these crimes occur in urban environments. Such an observation reflects the picture of the displacement of rural poverty and their implantation in urban centres where they are further greeted with social exclusion [17]. As such, crime is therefore linked to societies where spatial socio-economic inequality is the norm rather than the exception. Same observations were reported by [21].

Figure 6. Rate of crime variation from the Suburbs to the CBD in Bamenda

The analysis of crimes per the land use layout was assessed and the results revealed that crimes vary significantly in intensity and frequency from the CBD to the suburbs. It is observed that property crimes are dominant in the CBD while violence crimes are most recurrent at the suburbs. The upsurge of violence crimes at urban peripheral areas is also a reflection of the natural environment and the land use; dominantly rural-like landscape (Figure 2).

3.3. Crime Hotspots in Bamenda Metropolis

In a related dimension, crime-specific locations tend to vary, while some crimes are fairly ubiquitous, occurring in almost all neighbourhoods. In Bamenda, theft (ranging from simple to aggravated theft) is recorded as the highest and fairly evenly distributed crime, followed by assault and threats of life. It is observed that Mobile Nkwen constitutes the main crime hotspot followed by Rendez-vous and Commercial Avenue (Figure 7). Crime hotspots is not only categorised as per number of recorded crimes on annual bases but also as per the safety and sporadicity of crime occurrence. Crime hotspots like Mile 4 Nkwen and Below Foncha are amongst the most sporadic and unpredictable with regards to the current assessment.

Figure 7 shows the area with highest numbers of crime cases per year (Mobile Nkwen), thus, the most reputed crime hotspot with an estimated 331 total crime cases. This is closely followed by Commercial Avenue (301 total crimes). Next in rank include, Rendez-vous (245 crime cases) and Ntamulung (237 crime cases) per year. Mile 4, Azire new church and Below Foncha appears not to have high crime activities in contradiction to Mobile Nkwen and Commercial Avenue. Mile 4 has an estimated cases of 213 annual crimes, Azire New Church (196 crimes) and Below Foncha (122 crimes) per year. The above data gives us a total of 1647 estimated cases of crimes across these hotspots (Figure 7). Respondents sourced (Figure 8) reported that burglary (33%) and prostitution (29.8%) are the main crimes looming the neighbourhoods of Mobile Nkwen. However, kidnapping is of recent slightly recurrent (8%) as well as gambling (12%).

[17], reported that the unplanned nature of this city is equally a threat to security control as reflected in crime related neighbourhoods such as Old Town (inner city), Mobile Nkwen and Meta quarters. These crimes seemingly show spatial variations in which some neighbourhoods are more affected than others. Recent statistics from the Judicial Police 2020, showed that Ntamulung, below Foncha, Rendez-vous, Atuakom, and Azire New Church have significantly recorded high crime rates with kidnapping and assaults being the most recurrent. Respondents’ views showed varying rates of crime occurrence across the CBD of Bamenda (Figure 9). This included, property crimes (36%), violent crimes (29%), organised crimes (20%), and white collar crimes (13%).

Figure 7. Observed crime hotspots and estimated yearly crime records

Figure 8. Frequency of crime types and trends in the Mobile Nkwen neighbourhoods

Figure 9. Major categories of Crimes in the CBD of Bamenda urbanscape

Figure 10. Spatial variation of urban crime cases in Bamenda urbanscape

Statistics from Judicial Police (Table 1) showed that property crime characterized by theft and house breaking (burglary) are the most recurrent in the CBD with a frequency rate of 36%.

The analysis of spatial variation of crime cases within Bamenda differ per crime hotspot. There is a general decrease of crimes from the CBD to the suburbs. It is observed that violence crime is occurring at the highest rate and it is followed by property crime. Moreover, it is observed that Mobile Nkwen records high organized crime rates with robbery and prostitution being the most recurrent. Crimes like kidnapping, Arson, false pretends, misappropriation and child abuse are emanating with increasing trends.

3.4. Spatial Correlation of Urban Crimes and Manifestation

Different crime types and their recurrence in time and space are related. Some crime scenes and crimes are highly associative. This near millionaire city shows an upward swing in kidnapping, robbery, property breaking and illegal drug deals (Figure 11). This is indicative of the prevailing socio-political climate and rising insecurity within the urban space. It was observed that the occurrence and recurrence of some urban crimes were highly correlated (Table 3). In most cases some crimes occur in association with the others (Figure 12).

Table 3. Correlation between observed types of crimes in Bamenda Urbanscape

Figure 11. Variations of urban crimes in Bamenda

Figure 12. Simple linear regression between selected crime types in Bamenda

Sexual assault and rape are highly correlated (r = 0.798, R² = 0.636). In the same way, robbery and property breaking and arson were positively correlated (r = 0.557 and 0.455) respectively. Robbery was strongly correlated with gambling (r = 0.759), with illegal drug deals (r = 0.777), corruption (r = 0.830) and fraud/forgery (0.814). Vehicle theft is positively correlated with property breaking (r = 0.584), while property breaking is correlated with illegal drug deals (r = 0.412), with corruption (r = 0.624) and fraud/forgery (r = 0.513). Arson was positive related with some organized crimes like prostitution (r = 0.569), gambling (r = 0.668, R² = 0. 446), and illegal drug deals (r = 0.454; R² =0.205). In the same light, prostitution is positively correlated with gambling (r = 0.688), illegal drug deals (r = 0.475, R² =0.225). Also gambling is associative with illegal drug deals (r = 0.785), while illegal drug deals coincides with corruption (r = 0.514) and corruption strongly occurs in association with fraud/forgery (r = 0.974). However, robbery was not correlated with kidnapping (r = -0.234, R² = 0.054) (Figure 12)

The combination of several structural and proximate factors such as, rapid and unregulated urbanization, visible and pronounced inequality and unregulated arms availability, is increasingly acknowledged as among the primary risk factors associated with escalating criminal and armed violence in Africa [26]. It is thus compliant to adopt some three strategies (coercive measures involving forcible search and seizures, compliance-oriented interventions that seek to enhance legislations and voluntary initiatives of building support locally and stigmatising bad behaviour) for safer, less violent and resilient cities under the UN global target.

3.5. Current Urban Safety Measures and Perspectives

In a bit to curb rising crime rates, the government has enforced urban security and safety measures. Areas not formally having a stationed security and law enforcement unit like below Foncha is now covered. There is increased policing and military patrols across the urban space. Despite the reinforcement measures, inner city areas and peripheries remain major foci of crime manifestations. It is widely reported that addressing the root causes of urban crimes are amongst the palliatives of curbing crime recurrence [27]; [28]; [17]. In the case of the Bamenda metropolis, sound urban planning which gives room for coordinated development should be the starting point in addressing urban crimes. Such planning gives room for the development of accessible and secured neighbourhoods and enhanced economic opportunities for urbanites [17].

4. Conclusions and Recommendations

Urbanization comes with opportunities and challenges. One of the major challenges of urbanisation at recent is the threat of urban safety and security. It has been reported that urban crimes, a reflection of urban inequalities and poverty, widens the inequality gap and exacerbates the already established urban poverty. This has increase the vulnerability and risks of cross-section of urban poor living in slum dwellings and highly unsafe areas in towns of developing countries. It is reported that urban crimes, particularly organised crimes will significantly impact the attainment of ¼ of the 169 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Sustainable city planning and development in developing countries therefore needs to address the rising threat of urban criminality and crimes anchoring on the Safer Cities Programme of UN-HABITAT. The reinforcement of the judicial system and policing are amongst the measures to create clean and safer cities within the context of sustainable urban development and achievement of SDG 11.

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