LAW LAWAND & SECURITY SECURITY
By Peter Bagshawe
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CRIME STATISTICS
2018-2019
By Peter Bagshawe
The annual report detailing South Africa’s crime statistics for 2018-19 period were released by the Minister of the South African Police Service, Bheki Cele, to Parliament on 12 September 2019. In a piece of understatement, the statistics were categorised by Minister Cele as “not very rosy”.
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s is annually the case, the accuracy of the statistics and the mechanisms (and possible avoidance) of reporting of crimes at stations has been raised as an issue, as has the value of an annual report that of itself forces reactive policing methodologies. Going back in time, crime statistics have been presented annually since, from memory, 2012 – having previously been presented quarterly, which is widely regarded as better basis for the planning of crime prevention and analysis. Additionally the crime statistics are some 6 months out of date and do not reflect the recent spate of high profile cases and the resulting current focus on gender based violence is absent from the statistics. Historically, I have reviewed the annual statistics and
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referred extensively to the breakdown of the “trio crimes” that have been a focus point of the South African Police Service (SAPS) in conjunction with the drive towards increased visible policing that has been part of the strategy espoused by the SAPS. At this stage, a different approach is needed and an examination of social implications is appropriate. In overview, the 2018-2019 period crime statistics show upward trends in the areas of contact crime as well as property crime, with shifts within the latter. The first point of review of South African crime statistics is always murder, which is seen as the purest of the classes of crime reported on in that there is always a body associated with the crime as direct evidence. Before looking at the
local situation, a review of the world murder rate per 100 000 inhabitants puts South Africa in 9th position in the world, with a murder rate of 36.4 per cent. This is bracketed between Lesotho (38 per cent) and Swaziland (33.8 per cent). This is based on the World Atlas data for 2018 and the current South African murder rate has been substituted for the then current 2018 South African rate of 33. Based off the 2018 deaths figures provided by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights figures for 2018, there were more deaths by murder recorded in South Africa (21 022) for the period 20182019 than there were in Syria (19 799), which is damning when the protracted civil war and its aftermath in Syria is taken into account.
In overview the total number of crimes reported in the 20182019 period reduced against the 2017-2018 period by 83 510 offences from 2 096 781 to 2 013 271, which is an overall reduction of 4 per cent. Also to be taken into account in the overview is a reduction of 21.85 per cent in the number of crimes detected by the SAPS in the course of investigation and action to interdict offenders. This appears to relate largely to the 28.1 per cent and 10.1 per cent reductions in the number drug related and illegal possession of arms and ammunition crime detected by police, but is countered by the 19 per cent increase in the detection of sexually related offences. The last mentioned is a pleasing result if it can be related to alternative policing
SECURITY FOCUS AFRICA SEPTEMBER 2019
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