South Africa has a reputation for high levels of crime

South Africa has a reputation for high levels of crime, particularly violent crime, and combating of crime is one of the top priorities of government. This reputation has been earned at a time when crime levels worldwide have risen dramatically and therefore needs to be put in perspective. In the same breath, we also advocate caution in using crime statistics as the categorisation, completeness and quality of numbers will vary from country to country.

The Interpol website provides comparative data, albeit at a summary level and selectively, for many of the countries of the world. These,and other data, show that South Africa does not have the highest levels of crime in the world.

In the USA crime increased from below 1,900 per 100,000 population in 1960 to 5,800 per 100,000 in 1990, while violent crime increased fivefold from 1960 to 1992 with the US Justice Department in 1987 calculating that 80% of Americans would be a victim of violent crime at least once in their lives. In 1993, the level of violent crime in the USA was 9% higher than 1992. Using South African police statistics, crime levels in South Africa were 5,800per 100,000 in 2001, exactly the same as the USA in 1990.

Considering current crime statistics for the United States, statistics have shown that violent crime has been reduced by 3,4% within the last five years. However, from the year 2004 to 2005 violent crime had risen by 2,3%. During 2005 there had been 469.2 cases of violent crime per 100,000, and, there had been an estimated 1,390,695 cases of violent crime in total. Statistics for the year 2005 to 2006 show that 16,692 cases of murder had been reported, in South Africa the figure was 18,545; there were 417,122 robberies, in South Africa there was an estimation of 541,956 robbery offences; there were 862,947 aggravated assaults, in South Africa the figure was 454,495; and there were 93,934 rapes, South Africa reported 54,926 rapes nationwide.

Statistics, published by the South African Department of Safety and Security and the South African Police Service, for 2006/7 reveal that from April 2006 to March 2007 there have been 19,202 murders reported, 437,454 aggravated assaults (210,057 common assaults, 9,367 indecent assaults and 218,030 assaults with the intent to inflict grevious bodily harm), 52,617 rapes, 71,156 common robberies, 126,558 robberies with aggravating circumstances, 467 cash-in-transit heists, 129 bank robberies, 13,599 motor vehicle hijackings, 86,298 motor vehicle thefts, 249,665 residential burglaries, 58,438 burglaries at business premises, 104,689 cases of drug-related crime, and 61,690 cases of commercial crime were reported in South Africa. From 2005/6 murder underwent a 2,4% increase in 2006/7, common assault decreased by 8,7%, indecent assault decreased by 5,5%, rape decreased by 5,2%, common robbery decreased by 5,8%, robberies with aggravating circumstances increased by 4,6%, cash-in-transit heists increased by 21,9%, bank robberies increased by 118,6%, motor vehicle hijackings increased by 6,0%, motor vehicle thefts decreased by 0,7%, residential burglaries decreased by 5,9%, burglaries at business premises increased by 6,3%, drug-related crime increased by 8,2%, and commecial crime increased by 12,6% in 2006/7.

South Africa does have high levels of violent crime by global standards with 28% of all recorded crime in 2001, down from 33% in 1999,being violent in nature, whereas in the US it was 15% and in the UK 6%. For the year 2005 to 2006, 22% of police recorded crimes have been violent crime. Property crime was 16% and 12% of police recorded crime came from burglary offenses.

South Africa has a particularly bad reputation for car theft, yet the incidence per thousand of population is less than 70% of that of Australia. According to statistics released by the Department of Safety and Security and the South African Police Service, there has been a 9% reduction in crime overall from the year 2005 to 2006 compared with the year 2004 to 2005. Certain categories of violent crime such as attempted murder, assault with intent to do grevious bodily harm, common assault and common robbery have reduced considerably, roughly more than 10%. However, categories such as murder only saw a 2% decrease, rape; only reduced 1%; indecent assault offences decreased 3,7%; and robbery with aggravating circumstances decreased 6,2%. In the last year South Africa has seen a considerable increase in cash-in-transit heists, with police reporting a 74% increase (from 2004-2005 there were 220 cases, 2005-2006 had seen 385 cases), as well as, reporting an increase in bank robberies (from 2004-2005, 58 were reported; from 2005-2006, 59 had been reported), motor vehicle hijackings (12,434 cases have been reported for 2004-2005; 2005-2006 saw 12,825 cases reported) and motor vehicle theft (83,857 offenses were reported from 2004-2005; 2005-2006 saw 85,964 being reported).

Another important crime comparator is the size of the prison population. In 1999, there were 406 prisoners per 100,000 of population; in the USA in 1995, there were 335 prisoners per 100,000 and the prison population wasup 9% on 1994.

South Africa’s high crime levels are caused by a variety of complex issues including government transformation and the violent nature of the country’s past. High levels of unemployment and poverty have resulted in many groups relying on criminal activities to earn a living. Conflicts on the African continent have contributed to the flow of illegal weapons into South Africa. International drug syndicates play a role.

Some rural areas have been exposed to high levels of farm violence resulting in theft and sometimes murder. Commercial crime occurs in both the private and public sectors and the government has taken steps toaddress bribery and corruption in the public service. Within the last five years there has been a very slight decrease in commercial in South Africa. Statistics for the year 2001-2002 revealed that there had been 58,462 reported cases of commercial crime, for the year 2002-2003 it reduced to 56,232, for the year 2003-2004 there were 55,869 cases, and, for the year 2004-2005 the statistics decreased to 53,931, the lowest figure so far reported within the last five years. The year 2005-2006 saw a slight increase in commercial crime with statistics reaching 54,214.

The effect of crime on individuals in South Africa is not a uniform experience and depends on factors such as age, income status, onessocial circle, lifestyle and area of residence. Johannesburg has the highestrate of crime followed by Pretoria, Cape Town and Durban.

Interpol is involved in a number of regional initiatives to reduce crime levels.

Justice

Crime has also been attributed to an ineffective criminal justice system that convicts less than 9% of all recorded cases. To put this inperspective, in the USA in 1992, 10.3 million violent crimes led to 165,000convictions, with only 100,000 going to prison.

South Africa’s basic court structure is made up of the Constitutional Court followed in importance by the Supreme Court of Appeal, the High Courts and the Magistrate’s court. The country’s constitution provides for the establishment of more courts if deemed necessary by Parliament. This has led to the establishment of the Labour Appeal Court, the Labour Court, the Land Claims court, Special Income Tax courts, Competition Appeal court, Special Consumer courts, and the Electoral courts that all operate on the same level as the High courts. Lower courts operating on the same level of magistrates’ courts include Divorce courts, Small Claims courts, Short process courts and Courts of chief and headmen. The latter aregoverned by customary law.

The Department of Correctional Services is responsible for the administration of prisons, of which there are about 160 with an average population of 170,000. Corruption is endemic in the prisons system and stepsare being taken by government to uncover and correct the situation.

Resources
Crime Statistics for Other Countries
Department of Justice and Constitutional Development
Department of Correctional Services
Prison Statistics
South African Crime Statistics
South African Police Services

Notes

This profile has been prepared to assist companies both inside and outside South Africa to conduct business efficiently in and with South Africa. While every endeavour has been made to ensure that the information contained in this profile is current and correct, we recommend that companies making decisions based on this information contact the appropriate professional advisers, government department or organisation to verify the current situation.

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