Abstract
With increases of 2.4% and 4.6% respectively in the murder and aggravated robbery rates, the police’s release of the 2006/07 crime statistics confirmed the fears of many that violent crime is on the increase. During the media conference the police communicated the bad news badly in an obvious attempt to downplay the seriousness of a situation over which they, according to their own admission, actually have very little control. In a bizarre way this confirms that whatever we are doing to fight crime isn’t working and that it is time to consider something completely different.
Highlights
The analysis in this article focuses primarily on murder and aggravated robbery and draws on international experience to contextualise the trends revealed in the SAPS statistics
The crime statistics provided by the SAPS are generally regarded as fairly accurate and credible, the question of the extent to which reported crime is a true reflection of the ‘real’ crime situation remains relevant
It shows us that there is something seriously wrong with our approach to this ‘fight’ and the way in which we present our crime situation
Summary
With increases of 2.4% and 4.6% respectively in the murder and aggravated robbery rates, the police’s release of the 2006/07 crime statistics confirmed the fears of many that violent crime is on the increase. When the South African Police Service (SAPS) released the latest crime statistics, they confirmed what many people expected - that there had been a serious increase in violent crime This upward trend was disappointing, in view of promising decreases since 2002/03. More regular ‘victims of crime’ surveys, such as those conducted by the Home Office in Britain on an annual basis, would go some way towards providing an indication of what percentage of crime is reported to the police It is undoubtedly the violence associated with crime in South Africa that has had the most negative impact on perceptions of crime and the vulnerability expressed by many. Violent crime trends Murder and aggravated robbery are the two violent crimes that, after consecutive years in which the statistics revealed a steady decrease in the rate of incidence, again showed an upward curve in the 2006/07 period. In 1995/06 and 1998/99, Number of crimes
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