Crime is a prominent issue in South Africa. South Africa has a high rate of murders, assaults, rapes, and other crimes compared to most countries. Many emigrants from South Africa state that crime was a big factor in their decision to leave.

According to a survey for the period 1998–2000 compiled by the United Nations, South Africa was ranked first for rapes per capita. It is estimated that a woman born in South Africa has a greater chance of being raped than learning how to read. One in three of the 4,000 women questioned by the Community of Information, Empowerment and Transparency said they had been raped in the past year.

More than 25% of South African men questioned in a survey admitted to raping someone; of those, nearly half said they had raped more than one person, according to a new study conducted by the Medical Research Council (MRC).

Statistics

A survey for the period 1998-2000 compiled by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime ranked South Africa second for assault and murder (by all means) per capita and first for rapes per capita. Total crime per capita is 10th out of the 60 countries in the dataset. Note that these statistics only compare statistics from approximately 60 countries (typically better-developed countries) and many of the remaining countries of the world will have higher rates of violent crime - though these are usually unmeasured, disputed or uncomparable. The UN statistics also contain some flaws (e.g. gun crime in South Africa).

South Africa also has a bad record for car hijackings when compared to industrialised countries largely associated with the lower rate of car ownership.One South African insurance company, Hollard Insurance, no longer insures Volkswagen Citi Golfs as they are one of the most frequently hijacked vehicles in South Africa. In some areas there are road signs that indicate a high car-jack zone.

A recent new trend in South Africa is for thieves to enter restaurants and rob the patrons eating there. In July 2008, the Restaurant Association of South Africa (RASA) was forced to raise the security classification of the capital's restaurants to "caution areas". The RASA said since January, 15 people have been killed in 687 attacks carried out on RASA members' businesses.

Crime against commercial farmers has continued to be a major problem in the country.

The United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute have also conducted research on the victims of crime which shows the picture of South African crime as more typical of a developing country. These statistics show that South Africa has lower rates of violent crime than many African and South American countries.

From 2003 - 2009, however, the murder and crime rate has stabilized according to official police data.

Sexual violence

According to a survey for the period 1998–2000 compiled by the United Nations, South Africa was ranked first for rapes per capita. It is estimated that a woman born in South Africa has a greater chance of being raped than learning how to read. One in three of the 4,000 women questioned by the Community of Information, Empowerment and Transparency said they had been raped in the past year. One in four South African men in a survey by the country’s Medical Research Council said they had raped someone, and nearly half of them admitted more than one attack. Three out of four who admitted rape attacked for the first time during their teens.

South Africa has some of the highest incidences of child and baby rape in the world.

Background

According to government statistics, violent crimes such as murder and (reported) robberies have decreased in recent years. The rape and hijacking rates, however, showed no signs of such a slowdown. Hijackings and cash-in-transit heists particularly have been shown to be on the increase. The rape situation has become so bad that the country has been referred to as the "rape capital of the world"..

Recently the government has had a widely-publicised gun amnesty programme to reduce the number of weapons in circulation. In addition, it adopted the National Crime Prevention Strategy in 1996, which aimed to prevent crime through reinforcing community structures and helping individuals back into work.

The government has been criticised for doing too little to stop crime. Some question the effectiveness of the South African Police Service. The Government came in for especial censure when the Minister of Safety and Security was in Burundi promoting peace and democracy while there was a spate of crime in Gauteng. This spate included the murder of an alarming number of people, including members of the South African Police Service killed while on duty. The criticism preceded an announcement by the minister that the government would put effort into quelling the alarming increase of crime by 30 December 2006. In one province alone, nineteen police officers lost their lives in the first seven months of 2006.

The Minister of Safety and Security, Charles Nqakula caused outrage among South Africans in June 2006 when he responded to opposition MPs in parliament who were not satisfied that enough was being done to counter crime, saying that MPs who complain about the country's crime rate, should stop complaining and leave the country.

The failure of Nqakula's successor to release crime statistics for the first quarter of 2009, despite promises made by government in 2008 that these would not be delayed, also drew criticism .

The South African Police Service is responsible for managing 1115 police stations all over South Africa.

Gated communities

One of the most visible results of South Africa's anxiety concerning crime is the increasing number of gated communities that have been built in an effort to promote the safety of inhabitants. They usually comprise a group of suburban street blocks whose road exits have been fenced off with the exception of one or more entrances that are monitored by guards, usually employed by a security company.

The gated communities are generally located in wealthy areas whose residents can afford this type of protection. Having a house within a gated community tends to increase its value, and significantly reduces traffic within the gated community.

Typically, gated communities are set up by the residents of a neighbourhood or block of streets, after they have been granted permission by their local municipality. Their plans also have to be approved by traffic analysts. They typically consist of blockade fencing being erected on the streets at the outskirts of the gated community, with one or more access points set up, which consist of booms in the road that are operated by a security attendant. Most gated communities keep a register of the license plates of cars that enter the community (or in some cases with more than one entrance, the cars that exit as well), and as such a guard is usually present 24 hours a day.

The Gauteng Local Rationalisation of Government Affairs Act 10 of 1998, provided for the “Restriction of Access to Public Places for Safety and Security Purposes”, and regulated security access restrictions in the Gauteng Province. Chapter 7 of the Act governs the implementation of security access restrictions, and any Council procedures must comply with the provisions it contains.

The issue of gated communities is controversial, with some arguing that they are akin to a return to the pass laws, and research suggesting that they are a threat to democracy and risk causing further community division. Some opponents to gated communities argue that statistically they are not much safer than non-gated communities, and the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) has been asked to report on whether or not they violate any human rights, such as freedom of movement.

After public hearings were held in September 2004, a special report was released in 2005 by the SAHRC. The Chairperson of the SAHRC, Mr Jody Kollapen wrote, "The Commission, even though satisfied that a legal basis does exist for security access strictions, including boom gates and road closures, urges local authorities and communities to consider and exhaust alternate access restrictions, including guards and guard houses, traffic calmingmeasures and closed circuit television."

Legally, the access gates in a gated community are not supposed to deny anyone access; however they nonetheless serve the purpose of deterring traffic and unwanted individuals, and much better monitor the people entering and exiting the gated communities, usually with a register of vehicle license plates or other information.

Gated communities also hamper emergency services, because not only are their access points to a given street much more limited, but gated community boundaries do not show up on maps which create the need for extra time to find the entrance.

Private security companies

In order to protect themselves and their assets, many businesses and middle- to high-income households in South Africa make use of privately owned security companies with armed security guards.

The SAPS (South African Police Service) uses private security companies to patrol and safeguard certain police stations, thereby freeing fully-trained police officers to perform their core function of preventing and combating crime. A December 2008 BBC documentary presented by Louis Theroux examined such firms in the Johannesburg area, including the Bad Boyz security company.

Police response is deemed too slow and unreliable, and thus security companies are a popular form of protection. Private security firms promise response times of two to three minutes. Many levels of protection are offered, from suburban foot patrols to complete security checkpoint at the entry points of homes.

Financial crimes

PricewaterhouseCoopers's fourth biennial Global Economic Crime Survey reported a 110% increase in fraud reports from South African companies in 2005. 83% of South African companies reported being affected by white collar crime in 2005, and 72% of South African companies reported being affected in 2007. 64% of the South African companies surveyed stated that they pressed forward with criminal charges upon detection of fraud. 3% of companies said that they each lost more than ten million South African rand in two years due to fraud.

Louis Strydom, the head of PricewaterhouseCooper's forensic auditing division, said that the increase in fraud reports originates from "an increased focus on fraud risk management and embedding a culture of whistle-blowing." According to the survey 45% of cases involved a perpetrator between the ages of 31 and 40: 64% of con men held a high school education or less.

Advance fee fraud

Advance fee fraud scammers based in South Africa have in past years reportedly conned people from various parts of the world out of millions of rands. South African police sources stated that Nigerians living in Johannesburg suburbs operate advance fee fraud (419) schemes. In 2002, the South African Minister of Finance, Trevor Manuel, wanted to establish a call centre for businesses to check reputations of businesses due to proliferation of scams such as advance fee fraud, pyramid schemes and fly-by-night operators..

In response the South African Police services has also setup a project to identify 419 scams, closing websites and bank accounts where possible.

See also

• Crime Expo South Africa
• South African farm attacks
• Taxi wars in South Africa
• South African Police Service
• Private security industry in South Africa
• Race and crime

External Resources

• Institute for Security Studies - A regional research institute operating across sub-Saharan Africa.
  • SA Crime Quarterly - A quarterly publication by the ISS featuring an analysis of crime trends.
• WhiteCollarCrime.co.za - An initiative of Business Against Crime to try help people understand and recognise white collar crime and to teach its prevention.
• SAPS Crime Statistics 2008 - Crime statistics by year and category provided by the South African Police Service (SAPS).
• Interactive Crime Map - Crime and Economic Statistics by year and category on a geographic, interactive map provided by the Centre for Justice and Crime Prevention (CJCP).

References

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