Empirical Study of the Relationship Between School Dropout and Delinquency Among Youth in Niger State

School dropout has been consistently identified as a criminogenic risk factor in developmental criminology, and empirically characterising the school dropout-delinquency relationship among youth in Niger State fills an important evidence gap for educational and crime prevention policy in North Central Nigeria. This study empirically examined the relationship between school dropout and delinquency engagement among youth aged 15 to 25 in Minna, Suleja, and Bida LGAs, Niger State. A case-control design was employed, comparing 150 school dropouts with 150 age and location-matched enrolled secondary school students across multiple delinquency outcomes. The Self-Reported Delinquency Scale adapted for Nigerian youth was administered. Conditional logistic regression and propensity score matching were applied to estimate the independent effect of dropout on delinquency controlling for socioeconomic confounders. Results showed that dropout was significantly associated with higher scores on all five delinquency subscales: property offences (OR 4.3, p < 0.001), interpersonal violence (OR 3.8, p < 0.001), substance use (OR 5.1, p < 0.001), gang affiliation (OR 6.2, p < 0.001), and petty fraud (OR 3.4, p < 0.001). Propensity score matching confirmed that dropout independently increased delinquency risk after controlling for poverty, family disruption, and prior delinquency. The study provides empirical evidence for school retention as crime prevention and recommends targeted at-risk student support, conditional cash transfer for school continuation, and after-school programming as evidence-based delinquency prevention investments in Niger State. Keywords: school dropout, delinquency, youth crime, Niger State, developmental criminology