CRIMINAL PROFILING AND CRIME DETECTION BY NIGERIA POLICE FORCE MAKURDI, BENUE STATE

Criminal profiling has always been considered a very important law enforcement tool by the Nigerian Police in solving crime related issues, hence it is the process of criminal profiling that the investigator is able to find out the unknown criminal. This study examines how the Nigerian Police Force uses Criminal Profiling techniques to detect crime .Consequently three hypothesis were tested. The research area was Makurdi-Benue state and five police stations were selected with headquarter inclusive where questionnaires were distributed to respondents compromising of Officers/Men of the Nigeria Police to ascertain the effectiveness of criminal profiling in detecting crime. Data was collected primarily using the questionnaire designed for the study. The SPSS Statistical tool was used by the researcher to analyses the data gotten from the respondents. The findings revealed that; Increased knowledge by the Nigeria Police on Criminal Profiling and Crime Detection help reduce the crime rate in the society,, some of these underlining crimes increased over time as a result of poor investigation and detection of crime in the society. The study also revealed that, the Criminal Case File is the most effective technique used by the police in investigating crime. It also revealed that despite our data on crime scene photography proper analysis need to be carried out on them in other to have an effective investigation. The study recommends that the police, all law enforcement and intelligence agencies vested with powers to investigating crime, should always be ready and willing to make use of the available profiling equipment’s in their various forensic laboratories so as to mitigate and curb crime in the society, workshops and training to enhance the use of profiling tools to be conducted for effective crime investigation. Finally, proper funding of law enforcement agencies be done to motivate them in carrying out investigations.