Abstract:

Despite the human and material assets in the nation and a few projects set up to handle the reason for poverty in Nigeria; the nation is still perplexed with poverty. Unemployment is expanding at a geometrical rate yearly on account of the expansion of graduates from our different tertiary establishments, standards of living is getting alarmingly tumbling to a disappearing point, thereby leading tovarious crimes by our youth. Given the above assertion, this study looks at the socio-economic and demographic factors influencing the crime rate in the north-central zone of Nigeria. The information was elicited through primary and secondary sources. The strain theory was used, a Survey design was utilized and information was gathered through questionnaire. Utilizing purposive and sample random sampling techniques, a sum of 1400 respondents was selected for the sample size. The study uncovers that the zone is laden with issues of high unemployment. So suggests that the legislature through its security organizations should test further into the impacts of increasing unemployment on crime rate and how this influences the degree of business exercises in the zone.