Urban Renewal and Displacement: Implications for Crime A Study of Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria

This paper examined the implications of urban renewal and displacement for crime in Port Harcourt. This paper also looked at the socio-economic effects of massive urban renewal on the dwellers of Port Harcourt and the measures that can be put in place to prevent the hardship occasioned by urban renewal in Port Harcourt. This study was anchored on social ecological, and hybrids integrated theories approaches. The design of the study was a descriptive survey. This study uses secondary data. Content analysis was utilized to analyze the data to achieve the objectives of the study. The study shows that internal displacement, acute poverty, homelessness, family breakdown, severe unemployment, depression, economic recession, incomplete schooling and social isolation are some of the socio-economic impacts of urban renewal. in Port Harcourt. Displacements caused by urban renewal have resulted to commercial sex, robbery, cultism and political thuggery during elections, oil bunkering, kidnapping, armed robbery, theft and stealing. Also, the study revealed that planning, public hearing, revocation of rights of occupancy, displacement and relocation are measures that can be put in place to prevent the hardship occasioned by urban renewal in Port Harcourt. Consequently, the study recommends that Nigerian Government should make urban renewal exercise one that charges residents of communities likely to be affected, takes them away, pays required compensation, or if necessary relocates them before the demolition action begins