| CHAPTER 1 VIOLENT CRIME IN SOUTH AFRICA |
Br Mark Shaw
National Secretariat for Safety and Security
This chapter examines the overall context of crime in South Africa based on statistics available from January 1994 to June 1999. While there are many methodological issues which must be considered in analysing crime data, and while it is not possible to generalise on the basis of data for such a short time period, a number of observations can be made. The levels of inter-personal violent crime in the country are high. Incidents of murder have remained relatively stable but reported incidents of attempted murder have increased since January 1994 with significant variations among regions. Seasonal changes characterize most interpersonal violent crimes. These are most profound in the case of serious assault. Such upturns in crime appear to be associated with times during the year when more people are on holiday, either at home or visiting places of entertainment. In both cases the excessive consumption of alcohol appears to impact on the extent of violent crime. A key area of concern is the increase in robbery, and violent or aggravated robbery in particular. One fifth of aggravated robbery cases relate to hijackings of either cars or trucks. Increases in hijackings are serious not only because this is a crime which instills fear but also because increases in hijackings may signal a growth of organised criminal activities. Hijackings no longer occur in Gauteng only, but are increasingly being recorded in other areas, notably in KwaZulu-Natal.
The study of crime data presents many methodological challenges. The data presented below represent those crimes that are reported to the police. Clearly, these do not represent the totality of crime in the country since reporting levels vary between crime types. The seriousness of the crime as well as other factors such as the requirement to report for insurance purposes often determine whether or not victims approach the police. It should be noted that since 1994 there have been improvements in the way in which crime is recorded and statistics collated by the police. While much still needs to be done, more is known now about the extent of crime in the country than ever before.
Statistics for the period before 1994 are not used as they do not provide a full picture of crime in the country; they generally represented only those crimes which occurred in white’ South Africa, with the collection and collation of statistics by the former homeland police agencies varying in quality. Also, given that the majority of the country’s citizens had little trust in the police, the overall level of reporting was reduced, undermining the validity of the data.
Finally, given the relatively short period of time for which data is available, and the fact that crime often fluctuates from year to year, it is difficult to draw conclusions regarding trends.
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