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

• Author: Ivan Henrico,Nkosana Mayoyo,Babalwa Mtshawu
• DOI: 10.17159/2413-3108/2022/vn71a9539
• Published date: 01 November 2022
• Date: 01 November 2022
• Pages: 49-68

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SA CRIME QUARTERLY NO. 71 • 2022

Understanding crime in

the context of COVID-19

The case of Saldanha Bay

Municipality

South African

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.

CR I ME QUA RT E R LY

Ivan Henrico, Nkosana Mayoyo and

Babalwa Mtshawu1

ivanh@sun.ac.za

18928021@sun.ac.za

mtshawu@sun.ac.za

https://doi.org/10.17159/2413-3108/2022/vn71a9539

No. 71 | 2022

INSTITUTE FOR SECURITY STUDIES & UNIVERSITY OF CAPE TOWN

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Introduction

Actual crime levels in South Africa and around

the world are diff‌icult to present because only

crimes reported through off‌icial processes are

recorded, which does not necessarily provide

a true ref‌lection of crime. South Africa records

a high rate of murders, assaults, rapes and

other violent crimes, and is one of the most

dangerous and violent countries across the

globe.2 In South Africa, crime statistics and

estimations are regularly published by the South

African Police Service (SAPS) and Statistics

South Africa’s Governance, Public Safety, and

Justice Survey (GPSJS),3 which updated the

long-running Victims of Crime Survey (VOCS)

to include themes on governance. The GPSJS

complements the statistics provided by the

SAPS by presenting South Africans perceptions

about crime, their experiences of crime, and

their views on policing and the criminal justice

system. These and other sources that report

on crime should not be seen as replacements

or alternatives to off‌icial SAPS crime data, but

rather to enrich “the police statistics that will

assist in the planning of crime prevention”.4

Eldred de Klerk argues that “poverty and poor

service delivery directly impact crime levels,

while disparities between rich and poor are also

to blame”.5 Statistics indicate that crime affects

mainly poorer South Africans.6 The Saldanha

Bay Municipality (SBM) is characterised by

challenging socio-economic conditions, with

14.1% of households without income.7 Poverty

and unemployment undermine quality of life

and contribute to social ills such as crime. The

SBM’s most prevalent crime types are contact

crime and property-related crime, believed to

be spurred on by gangsterism.8 Gangsterism

and its close relationship with crime and

vandalism in this region is fuelled by illicit drugs,

a major crime pull factor among idle, socio-

economically disrupted and desperate youth.9

The reintegration of parolees into the community

is problematic, especially since no sustainable,

meaningful employment is available, causing

parolees to reoffend for survival.10

Although much is known about the causes

and consequences of crime and the use of

geographic information systems (GIS) to map

the spatial distribution of crime, not much is

known about geospatial crime trends in the

SBM area. Existing studies focus on utilising

GIS techniques to map and analyse spatial

distributions of crime for specif‌ic countries,

regions and towns.11 In South Africa, few

studies have used geospatial techniques to

illustrate and analyse spatial distributions of

crime visually, and none have focused on

SBM. The SAPS, through a Memorandum of

Understanding with Statistics South Africa,

publishes the crime statistics for the whole of

South Africa on a quarterly basis.12 Crime is

reported in f‌ive broad categories, recorded

by each police station per province. However,

data are not visually illustrated to show spatial

distributions and trends.

The Novel Corona Virus Disease 2019

(COVID-19) has added another dimension to

crime trends. Some countries, such as South

Africa, implemented swift and drastic measures

to stop the spread of COVID-19.13 Since the

outbreak of the pandemic, there has been

much research about its effects on global

crime.14 However, there has been limited such

research in South Africa.15 Similarly, not much

is known about the effects of the COVID-19

pandemic on crime in the SBM, specif‌ically

during the f‌irst three months of the South

African national lockdown.

This study attempted to f‌ill these gaps by

pursuing a visual representation of crime

data of the SBM area to recognise high crime

spots, and to show the relationship between

the COVID-19 pandemic and crime in the

area. The purpose was to illustrate by means

of graphs and tables the crime trend over