© ADR Journals 2016. All Rights Reserved. Prevalence of Lethal and Non-lethal Crimes in Nigeria Ukoji Vitus Nwankwo * , Okolie-Osemene James ** Abstract The revolution in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) has remained an effective means of reporting crime to the public. Modern hardware and software devices have been deployed by Trent Online and Nigeria Watch to effectively furnish Nigerians including the academia, policy formulators, decision makers, government institutions and Non- Governmental Organizations with relevant data and statistics on trends and patterns of lethal and non-lethal crime in Nigeria. Findings in this article show that armed robberies is a recurring form of crime in Nigeria, contributing about 50% of an overall 8516 deaths in 3, 840 fatal incidents between June 2006 and September, 2015 nationwide. Lagos, Rivers, Ogun, Benue and Imo states were reported as the most affected crime states. Findings also show more crime fatalities in the Southern part of Nigeria than in the North. This article therefore maintains that the inability of government to address most of the sources of crime explains why it has become difficult to nip in the bud. Keywords: Crime, Fatalities, M edia, Robbery, Rape. Background and Problem Statement Crime is one of the human security problems confronting humanity across the world. Several nations have grappled to contain the rising incidence of homicide, armed robbery, and kidnap, drug trafficking, sex trafficking, illegal gun running and host of others. United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in 2011 estimated global homicides at 468,000 and more than a third (36%) was estimated to have occurred in Africa, 31% in the Americas, 27% in Asia, 5% in Europe and 1% in the tropical Pacific region.[26] According to the report, economic crisis; food insecurity; inflation; and weak or limited rule of law are factors that drive crime. However, the drivers of crime are not restricted to the aforementioned causative factors. In the Americas, more than 25% of homicides are related to “organized crime and the activities of criminal gangs”; the same only true of approximately 5% of homicides in the Asian and European countries for which data are available.[26] Africa has remained a leading continent in global crime statistics. Prevalence of violent and non-violent crimes has remained high in South Africa and Nigeria. According to Africa Check, incidents of murder increased from 15 609 murders in 2011/12 to 16 259 murders in 2012/13 in South Africa, with increase of 650 * Assistant Coordinator, Nigeria Watch Project, 9 Parry Road, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria. ** Department of International Relations, Welsprings University, Benin, Edo State. Correspondence to: Mr Ukoji Vitus Nwankwo, Assistant Coordinator, Nigeria Watch Project, 9 Parry Road, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria. E-mail Id: ukojiv@gmail.com