Most South Africans are of the opinion that crime levels have increased‚ and many are likely not to report crimes to police because they “won’t” or “can’t do anything about it”.
That’s according to a summary of the results for the Victims of Crime Survey (VOCS) released by Statistician-General Pali Lehohla on Tuesday.
The VOCS – the latest of which covers the period 2011 to 2014/2015 – has three main objectives:
- Providing information about the dynamics of crime from the perspective of households and the victims of crime;
- Exploring public perceptions of the activities of the police‚ prosecutors‚ courts and correctional services in the prevention of crime and victimisation; and
Provide complementary data on the level of crime within SA in addition to the statistics published annually by the South African Police Service (SAPS).
Lehohla said that “the prevalence and under-reporting of crime incidents to SAPS remain a major concern in the country”.
“It is important to measure the extent of crime and gain insights about its dynamics in order to better understand how it manifests itself in communities‚” he added.
Crime categories more likely to be reported to the SAPS were contact-related — murder (95.7%)‚ car theft (88.9%)‚ car hijacking (85.8%) and sexual offences (63.0%) — while “property-related crimes‚ such as housebreaking/burglary (51‚8%)‚ theft of personal property (34‚2%) and theft of livestock (32‚3%) were less likely to be reported”.
“Most households who decided not to report crime‚ mentioned ‘police could do nothing’ and ‘police won’t do anything about it’ as the reasons why they did not report the crime‚” Lehohla elaborated.
Housebreaking/burglary (65.9%) and home robbery (42.7%) were the crimes perceived “as the most feared amongst households”‚ the VOCS found.
But the areas outside households instilled fear amongst many respondents with 85.4% feeling “safe walking alone in their area during the day‚ and 68.9% felt unsafe when it is dark”.
This‚ said Lehohla‚ showed “a noticeable declining trend of a percentage of households who felt safe when it is dark was observed from 2011 to 2014/15”.
The issue of trafficking — which was used as motivation for the introduction of SA’s controversial stringent visa regulations – was given a lot of attention in Lehohla’s summary.
“The vast majority of households (94.9%) indicated that they heard of trafficking in persons through media‚ while 19.5% learnt about trafficking in persons through family and friends‚” he said.
Most households – notably more than 80% of respondents in KwaZulu-Natal‚ Gauteng and the Eastern Cape – “thought that the perpetrators engaged themselves in this deed in order to sexually exploit their victims”‚ but “about 52.3% of households in the country were of the opinion that perpetrators of trafficking in persons were doing this to extract their victims’ body parts”.
Notable too‚ Lehohla found‚ was that “67.7% indicated that they knew nothing about any law relating to trafficking in persons”.
Stats SA: Prevalence and under-reporting of crime remain a major concern
That’s according to a summary of the results for the Victims of Crime Survey (VOCS) released by Statistician-General Pali Lehohla on Tuesday.
The VOCS – the latest of which covers the period 2011 to 2014/2015 – has three main objectives:
- Providing information about the dynamics of crime from the perspective of households and the victims of crime;
- Exploring public perceptions of the activities of the police‚ prosecutors‚ courts and correctional services in the prevention of crime and victimisation; and
Provide complementary data on the level of crime within SA in addition to the statistics published annually by the South African Police Service (SAPS).
Lehohla said that “the prevalence and under-reporting of crime incidents to SAPS remain a major concern in the country”.
“It is important to measure the extent of crime and gain insights about its dynamics in order to better understand how it manifests itself in communities‚” he added.
Crime categories more likely to be reported to the SAPS were contact-related — murder (95.7%)‚ car theft (88.9%)‚ car hijacking (85.8%) and sexual offences (63.0%) — while “property-related crimes‚ such as housebreaking/burglary (51‚8%)‚ theft of personal property (34‚2%) and theft of livestock (32‚3%) were less likely to be reported”.
“Most households who decided not to report crime‚ mentioned ‘police could do nothing’ and ‘police won’t do anything about it’ as the reasons why they did not report the crime‚” Lehohla elaborated.
Housebreaking/burglary (65.9%) and home robbery (42.7%) were the crimes perceived “as the most feared amongst households”‚ the VOCS found.
But the areas outside households instilled fear amongst many respondents with 85.4% feeling “safe walking alone in their area during the day‚ and 68.9% felt unsafe when it is dark”.
This‚ said Lehohla‚ showed “a noticeable declining trend of a percentage of households who felt safe when it is dark was observed from 2011 to 2014/15”.
The issue of trafficking — which was used as motivation for the introduction of SA’s controversial stringent visa regulations – was given a lot of attention in Lehohla’s summary.
“The vast majority of households (94.9%) indicated that they heard of trafficking in persons through media‚ while 19.5% learnt about trafficking in persons through family and friends‚” he said.
Most households – notably more than 80% of respondents in KwaZulu-Natal‚ Gauteng and the Eastern Cape – “thought that the perpetrators engaged themselves in this deed in order to sexually exploit their victims”‚ but “about 52.3% of households in the country were of the opinion that perpetrators of trafficking in persons were doing this to extract their victims’ body parts”.
Notable too‚ Lehohla found‚ was that “67.7% indicated that they knew nothing about any law relating to trafficking in persons”.
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