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The crime types examined below are divided into two broad categories:
Violent property crime: all categories of common robbery and armed robbery, (such as hijacking).
The chapter provides a broad overview of crime trends in respect of each of the categories. While in some cases causal factors are outlined, no attempt is made to enter into a detailed discussion of the causes of the various crime types in South Africa. A short summary of crime trends in the country concludes the chapter.
Levels of interpersonal violent crime in the country are high. Generally, reports of these crimes have stabilised. With the exception of murder, however, few overall reductions are noted.
There has been a slow decline in the level of murder since January 1994. This decline stopped during 1997, with the overall level of murder remaining stable from that point onwards (see Figure 1). While the decline is possibly attributable to a decline in political violence in 1994 (particularly in KwaZulu-Natal), there were also reductions in the reporting of incidents of murder during 1995 and 1996.
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