WC homes most prone to crime

Statistician-General Pali Lehohla reveals survey

HOUSEHOLDS in the province are more likely to be victims of crime than in any other province. This is evident from the victims of crime survey, released yesterday by Statistician-General Pali Lehohla.

The victims of crime survey data combined with data from previous years showed a general decline in crime both in terms of the proportion of households that were victimised and the proportion of individuals 16 years and older who were victimised, Lehohla said.

“Throughout the four-year period the Western Cape maintained the top position, having the highest proportion of households victimised by crime while Limpopo kept the last position in this regard. This is also the case for crime perpetrated against individuals.”

Lehohla said more than 1.4 million crime incidents were experienced in about 1.1 million households in the 2016/17 year. “The victimised households represent 7.2% of all households in South Africa. Male-headed households had a higher proportion of victimisation compared to female-headed households. Estimation according to different population groups showed that coloured households were the most victimised and black Africans were the least victimised with 6.9% of households having experienced crime in 2016/17. The most common crime experienced in 2016/17 was housebreaking or burglary followed by theft of livestock and home robbery.”

The two main reasons given for not reporting to the police were “police could do nothing” and “the police would do nothing”, together accounting for 60% of the households. Thirty-eight percent of the households that reported housebreaking were satisfied with police response.

ISS Crime and Justice Information Hub manager Lizette Lancaster said victims of crimes not reporting crimes was increasingly becoming a problem.

“The fear of crime is having a notable social impact, with a third of South Africans saying it’s a reason to avoid using open spaces or parks; and one in four households not allowing their children to play outside in their neighbourhoods.”

She said two key changes need to take place to start improving public safety:

“Firstly, effective, evidence-based violence prevention programmes aimed at improving the lives of infants and young children must be rolled out to scale. This will ensure substantial improvements in public safety in 10 years, as these children become teenagers and young adults who are less prone to violent behaviour.

“Secondly, the functioning of the criminal justice system must urgently be improved. Recommendations in the National Development Plan and other initiatives are under way, which may contribute to this objective.” Change would be seen when the state addressed challenges in leadership in the criminal justice system. “The ongoing crises of leadership in the system is a direct result of poor, politically inspired appointments that have little to do with the interests of the public.”