SA Crime Quarterly

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Latest documents

• Understanding crime in the context of COVID-19 : The case of Saldanha Bay Municipality

  South Africa faces high levels of crime. The Saldanha Bay Municipality, the setting of this study, is laden with poverty, unemployment and gangsterism that deprive quality of life and contribute to social ills. While crime management and prevention strategies require information regarding crime trends, this information for the Saldanha Bay Municipality area is limited. Hence, the study aimed to illustrate the spatial distribution and trends of crime in the Saldanha Bay Municipality, focusing on the period January 2017 to June 2020, and to indicate the recent impact of COVID-19 on these crime trends. The results of the study are presented by means of graphs and tables, and hotspot mapping was done using the ArcGIS Getis-Ord Gi* statistics tool. These results indicate that crime has increased over the past three years and that criminal activities are linked to urban hubs where most people stay and work. In terms of the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdown regulations on crime, it is interesting to note the variations in crime rates during the first three months of lockdown (from April 2020 to June 2020) when compared to the rest of the period under investigation. Amongst the five towns investigated, the town of Vredenburg which has the highest population total and was ranked highest in terms of crime rates prior to the lockdown, moved from first to third, behind Langebaan and St Helena Bay. Similarly, Saldanha Bay with the second highest population total moved down to fourth. Hopefield was still the town with the lowest mean crime rate.

• Protecting Fido, protecting the family : Developing domestic violence law to include companion animals

  This article argues that by developing domestic violence laws to include and protect individual companion animals in the home, it might be possible to prevent violence against other victims in the home. Protecting a companion animal from persistent violence by, for example, having properly integrated reporting systems between government departments, could protect various vulnerable members of the family. The article briefly sketches the status of intimate partner violence in South Africa and explores the current implementation of the Domestic Violence Act. The status of companion animal abuse in South Africa and other jurisdictions is briefly explored. The article then shows that an intersection of violence exists in the home between women, children and companion animal and that protecting specific victims of violence (such as companion animals) can potentially act as a mechanism that can protect all victims from future or persisting violence.

• Keeping them out of prison : A restorative justice education intervention with prison inmates in Lesotho

  This research project involved planning and implementing a restorative justice education programme with prison inmates in Lesotho aimed at restoring their self-worth and dignity, and to evaluate its outcomes. The project began with focus group discussions with first-time offenders, repeat offenders and ex-inmates to identify the main challenges faced by ex-inmates. It was found that these were stigma, rejection by their families and communities and the harsh socio-economic environment. The study then utilised restorative justice education materials from a South African NGO, Phoenix Zululand, which were translated into Sesotho and modified to suit local conditions. The programme involved discussion groups led by a facilitator and culminated in a conference involving inmates and their families held shortly before release. An evaluation conducted 12-18 months after release found very positive outcomes for the ex-inmates and their families concerned but there are reasons to be conservative in what is claimed in terms of programme success.

• ‘Bad, sad and angry’ : Responses of the SAPS leadership to the dangers of policing

  Danger is an integral part of the fabric of South African society. Yearly statistics regularly underscore the extent of danger experienced through reported acts of violence. As generally office bound executives, senior police officers rarely encounter this violence to the same extent as frontline officers. 2 These police leaders are ultimately responsible for the strategies and operations employed to prevent police exposure to such dangers. Little research, however, has examined how the senior personnel react and respond to such danger. In this discussion, perceptions of senior South African Police Service (SAPS) officials to the dangers of police work are laid bare. How danger is conceptualised at such senior levels has relevance in initial examinations of why the SAPS may police in the manner in which they do.

• Prison protests in South Africa : A conceptual exploration

  This article explores the nature and causes of prisoner protests, looking at it first from a sociological perspective and second, a rights perspective. The fact that people end up in prison following due process does not mean that their imprisonment is not a contested arena in the sense that prisoners are generally aware of their rights, even when curtailed. Importantly, this curtailment has boundaries - prisoners do not lose all their rights and it seems that this particular issue is frequently the locus of tension, and sometimes conflict, between prisoners and prison administration. There is nothing in South African law prohibiting prisoners from protesting as recognised by s 17 of the Bill of Rights. However, prisoners, with reference to the right to free speech and the right to peaceful demonstration, find themselves in a situation where they can claim these rights, but the enabling legislation is not only lacking, but there are strong indications that the operational procedures prevent them from exercising these rights.

• Progressive or regressive rape case law? : Tshabalala v S; Ntuli v S 2020 2 SACR 38 CC

  The Constitutional Court's decision in Tshabalala v S; Ntuli v S 2020 2 SACR 38 CC is undoubtedly a step in the right direction towards rape law reform in South Africa, however, this article challenges the court's decision to extend the application of the common law doctrine to common law rape. It is argued that the court could have highlighted the power dynamics at play during the commission of rape without denouncing instrumentality as a central element of the crime. This article further argues that the Constitutional Court, in developing common law rape, should have taken into account that rape is a conduct/instrumental crime under the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Related Matters) Amendment 32 of 2007. Instead, the judgment now has the effect of creating different elements for common law rape, in cases where there is more than one perpetrator.

• ‘Bad, sad and angry’ : Responses of the SAPS leadership to the dangers of policing

  Danger is an integral part of the fabric of South African society. Yearly statistics regularly underscore the extent of danger experienced through reported acts of violence. As generally office bound executives, senior police officers rarely encounter this violence to the same extent as frontline officers. 2 These police leaders are ultimately responsible for the strategies and operations employed to prevent police exposure to such dangers. Little research, however, has examined how the senior personnel react and respond to such danger. In this discussion, perceptions of senior South African Police Service (SAPS) officials to the dangers of police work are laid bare. How danger is conceptualised at such senior levels has relevance in initial examinations of why the SAPS may police in the manner in which they do.

• Protest injuries : A situational analysis of injurious protests in Gauteng

  In this article, we investigate contextual and situational circumstances of protest events that record injurious outcomes for civilians and examine how these differ from protests which do not record such outcomes. Using the IRIS database, we examine how contextual factors, including protest period, protest location, reason for protest, and situational factors, such as type of protest, damage to property, arrests and police response contribute to civilian injury. Using logistic regression analysis, it was found that: 1) protest-related injuries were more frequent during the late-2000s than the 2010-15 period; 2) protest location was not a significant predictor of protest injury; 3) protests which recorded arrests and damage to property were more likely to report injurious outcomes; and 4) the addition of an aggressive police response was significant in determining protestor injury outcomes. Our findings have implications for public policing strategies, highlighting the role of different modalities of police response in the mitigation or escalation of injuries at protest events.

• Keeping them out of prison : A restorative justice education intervention with prison inmates in Lesotho

  This research project involved planning and implementing a restorative justice education programme with prison inmates in Lesotho aimed at restoring their self-worth and dignity, and to evaluate its outcomes. The project began with focus group discussions with first-time offenders, repeat offenders and ex-inmates to identify the main challenges faced by ex-inmates. It was found that these were stigma, rejection by their families and communities and the harsh socio-economic environment. The study then utilised restorative justice education materials from a South African NGO, Phoenix Zululand, which were translated into Sesotho and modified to suit local conditions. The programme involved discussion groups led by a facilitator and culminated in a conference involving inmates and their families held shortly before release. An evaluation conducted 12-18 months after release found very positive outcomes for the ex-inmates and their families concerned but there are reasons to be conservative in what is claimed in terms of programme success.

• Understanding crime in the context of COVID-19 : The case of Saldanha Bay Municipality

  South Africa faces high levels of crime. The Saldanha Bay Municipality, the setting of this study, is laden with poverty, unemployment and gangsterism that deprive quality of life and contribute to social ills. While crime management and prevention strategies require information regarding crime trends, this information for the Saldanha Bay Municipality area is limited. Hence, the study aimed to illustrate the spatial distribution and trends of crime in the Saldanha Bay Municipality, focusing on the period January 2017 to June 2020, and to indicate the recent impact of COVID-19 on these crime trends. The results of the study are presented by means of graphs and tables, and hotspot mapping was done using the ArcGIS Getis-Ord Gi* statistics tool. These results indicate that crime has increased over the past three years and that criminal activities are linked to urban hubs where most people stay and work. In terms of the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdown regulations on crime, it is interesting to note the variations in crime rates during the first three months of lockdown (from April 2020 to June 2020) when compared to the rest of the period under investigation. Amongst the five towns investigated, the town of Vredenburg which has the highest population total and was ranked highest in terms of crime rates prior to the lockdown, moved from first to third, behind Langebaan and St Helena Bay. Similarly, Saldanha Bay with the second highest population total moved down to fourth. Hopefield was still the town with the lowest mean crime rate.

Featured documents

• Taking stock of the last 20 years - responses to organised crime in a democratic South Africa

  Following the end of apartheid, the South African state has faced a number of challenges. One of these has been the growing spectre of organised crime, which has weighed heavily on the public consciousness. The narrative has been one of organised crime, which is becoming increasingly sophisticated...

• Frequency and turmoil - South Africa’s community protests 2005–2017

  This article reports on the frequency and turmoil of South Africa’s community protests from 2005 to 2017, which, taken together, have been called a ‘rebellion’. It defines ‘community protest’ as protests in which collective demands are raised by a geographically defined and identified ‘community’...

• A provincial concern? Political killings in South Africa

  Politically motivated killings have occupied a relatively marginal position as an issue of public concern in South Africa since 1994. This may reflect the provincial nature of the problem, since such killings have mainly occurred in KwaZulu-Natal, with a much smaller number occurring in Mpumalanga...

• Reformulating dolus eventualis : guidance from USA and Germany

  Dolus eventualis has correctly been described as an 'enigma'. Not only has it been variously described by the courts, but the courts have applied the two-stage test without providing an in-depth analysis of what it means. Both dolus eventualis required for murder and conscious negligence required...

• A losing battle? Assessing the detection rate of commercial crime

  The South African Police Service (SAPS) struggles to protect victims from commercial crime that threatens the economy, corrodes scarce and valuable resources, and inhibits growth and development. Official SAPS statistics show that the annual detection rate in respect of reported fraud cases was 35.7...

• The Lindela Repatriation Centre, 1996–2014 : applying theory to the practice of human rights violations

  This article is based on media content analysis of more than 230 newspaper articles written on the Lindela Repatriation Centre from its establishment in 1996 to 2014. This centre is South Africa’s only holding facility for undocumented migrants1 awaiting repatriation, and the data revealed that it...

• The Western Cape Police Ombudsman

  In 2013 the Western Cape legislature passed the Western Cape Community Safety Act (WCCSA) to improve monitoring of and oversight over the police. One creation of the WCCSA is the Western Cape Police Ombudsman, which became operational in 2015. This article reviews its history and context, as well...

• Autobiographies of a special kind - Recent writings by and on the police in South Africa

  The occupational culture of police organisations has long fascinated policing scholars. In the Anglo-American world ethnographic enquiries have contributed much to our understanding of police perceptions, beliefs and actions. This article takes a closer look at efforts to describe and analyse...

• Local government elections, violence and democracy in 2016 : the killing fields of kzn

  This article explores the intersections between party interests, democratic accountability and violence in KwaZulu-Natal. It begins with an overview of the legacy of violence in the province before detailing how changes in the African National Congress (ANC) since the 2007 Polokwane conference are...

• Rationalising injustice : the reinforcement of legal hegemony in South Africa

  The legal system in South Africa holds a legitimate and authoritative position in the country’s constitutional democracy and political order, despite the commonplace experiences of injustice that take place at the hands of the criminal justice system. This article looks at how the legal...