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South Africa: South Africans Take Hard Line On Crime
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Business Day (Johannesburg)
9 May 2008
Posted to the web 9 May 2008
Chantelle Benjamin
Johannesburg
SOUTH Africans feel less secure than they did five years ago, says a survey of crime victims by the Institute for Security Studies.
The survey blames the insecurity on two factors: more violent crime and less confidence in the police.
The survey also found that there had been a hardening of attitudes towards criminals, with most respondents believing that crime was more about greed than need.
The public was now twice as likely to call for heavier sentencing and punitive action than in 2003, the survey showed.
There were 4500 respondents across all provinces.
Researcher Antoinette Louw said that the hardening of attitudes, despite a 2% decrease in reported crime, had to do with the high incidence of aggravated robberies and the personal effect these had on the victims.
According to national crime statistics for 2006-07, aggravated robbery crimes such as residential robberies increased 24,4%, car hijacking 6%, business robberies 52,2%, bank robberies 118,6% and cash in transit heists 21,9%.
It was not surprising, then, that respondents were more concerned about housebreaking than about murder and rape, the researchers said.
The study found that reporting levels had increased for housebreaking from 57% in the 2003 survey to 81% in 2007.
Despite a drop in reporting of crime from 23% in 2003 to 22% in 2007, 57% of participants believed crime was increasing, against 53% in 2003.
Sixty-two percent felt unsafe walking in their areas at night, compared with 25% in 1998.
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Requests for bribes for car licences and traffic fines were also on the increase.
Police patrolling and visibility were not key issues for the public. They were slightly less satisfied with policing -- basing their feelings mainly on response times and attitudes.
Louw said the survey would give police a good indication of where they needed to concentrate. Participation in community policing forums remained as low in 2007 as in 2003 and people had also done little to protect themselves.
Is there any other way but to take a hard line ?
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