DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF WEB BASED CRIME REPORTING SYSTEM

ABSTRACT

Crime is part of human activities and needs to be managed. No human society has ever been totally free of deviants and it is unlikely that society will ever be. The more populated and complex a society becomes the wider the range of antisocial conducts that must be controlled by the government through the armed forces and other agencies especially the Police Force. The incident-based system reports on a much broader range of crimes and includes data on the circumstances of the crime, the victim, and the defendant. The current crime reporting system is faced with several difficulties as there is no instant means of reporting crime other than telephone calls, messaging or perhaps face-to-face which is usually cumbersome especially where the reporter wishes to keep anonymity. The proposed crime reporting system aims to assist the Nigerian Police in their bid to solve crimes with timely and useful information about criminals and/or their mode of operations so as to nip in the bud criminal activities in a given locality. Finally, a prototype crime reporting system was designed that relies on four reporting forms: a complaint or dispatch reporting form, a crime event report form, follow-up investigation report form, and an arrest report form. The system consists of three functional modules: a data capture module, a report management and control module, and a data utilization module. Future work on crime reporting system can be tailored towards accessibility (mobile version), awareness and improvement on the usage. 

CHAPTER ONE

1.0 INTRODUCTION

Modern society is characterized by increasing levels of global social mobility and uncertainty relating to levels of risk posed by internal and external security threats. Within this climate security driven by technology is increasingly being used by governments, corporate bodies and individuals to monitor and reduce risk [1]. There has been an acceptance that the criminal justice system is limited in its capacity to control crime which has led to the exploration of other avenues for tackling crime [2] and this has provided a market for private companies to push forward the growth of technological security innovations. Crime is a human experience and is as old as the human race. Crime is geographical. It occurs at a specific place, specific time and for a specific reason. It can affect everyone and anyone at any time.

Both Information Technology (IT) and crime are complex and constantly changing. Social and technological changes introduce new targets, tools and motives for crime. E-crime targets include confidential information, technical infrastructure and denial of service. Improved and faster technology and worldwide communications make it easier to both organise and conceal crime. Software to help criminals is available, even as commercial products: criminals have used attack-testing software to probe the security of target systems. Motivations now include terrorism and revenge as well as traditional desires for financial gain.