Doubt cast over validity of crime stats
POLICE statistics released over the years were not official and did not meet the 10 requirements of the Statistics Act, Statistician-General Dr Pali Lehohla said yesterday.
The figures were unofficial and required the input of qualified statisticians, he said.
“Currently, crime statistics generated don’t meet the criteria. That is why we are working with the police as they compile them,” Lehohla said.
One of the missing criteria, he said, was the statistician-general releasing them, instead of the police commissioner or police minister as had been done.
While the statistics did not meet his requirements, he was satisfied that the statistics were not “massaged”, he said.
“The police use our statisticians to improve their statistics,” he said during the release of the Victims of Crime report.
According to the survey, most households did not report certain crimes owing to a lack of trust in the police.
“The majority of households said they did not report criminal incidents to the police, because they believed the police could not or would not do anything,” Lehohla said.
The survey further revealed that there was a decline in satisfaction of the courts.
“The most common reason for dissatisfaction with the courts is that they were too lenient on criminals.”
Other reasons cited were that the processes were too long or postponements too many. Some even said they believed the courts were corrupt, Lehohla said.
The survey was household-based and examined crime from the point of view of victims. The focus of the survey was on people’s perceptions and experience of crime.
About 30 000 households across the country were surveyed.
Most households were of the view that violent crimes in their area had increased in the past three years, with 37% of Gauteng residents saying they were sure of this.
Most households also believed that crimes were mainly committed because of drugs.
The report also showed that guns were the most commonly used weapon by perpetrators of car hijacking, robbery, home robbery and murder.
“This shows that crime creates a vicious cycle because guns are mostly used in crimes and people also use guns to protect themselves,” said Lehohla.
During the past five years, South African households experienced a decline in housebreakings and home robberies from 931 000 in 2010 to 807 000 in 2015/16.
“Despite the improvement over the past five years, South Africans felt violent and property crimes were on the increase, to the extent that most households did not feel safe enough to walk alone in parks or to allow their children to play freely in their neighbourhoods,” he said.