Throwing light on SA crime reality
4 March 2004
South Africa's second ever national victim survey supports police claims about stabilising and decreasing crime levels, revealing a 2% drop-off in the last five years.
The independent study also confirms that the most prevalent crimes are non-violent - but finds a sharp disparity between the reality and the public's perception of crime in South Africa.
The Institute for Security Studies (ISS) has released the results of the country's second national victim survey - the first one was released in 1998 - conducted between September and October 2003 and based on a representative sample of 4 862 South Africans over the age of 16.
According to the South African Police Service (SAPS), crime levels have stabilised over the past few years, and police numbers are on the increase. The results of the ISS survey complement the official crime statistics of the police, providing an alternative national picture of crime rates.
According to the ISS,
these rates "can be directly compared to those recorded in the national victim survey carried out by the United Nations, Statistics South Africa and the Department of Safety and Security in 1998.
"As such, the ISS study enables the first independent perspective on whether crime has in fact stabilised over the past five years."
The survey reveals that 22.9% of South Africans were victims of crime in 2003, compared to 24.5% in 1998, representing a 2% overall decline in the crime victimisation rate.
In 2003, like in 1998, property crimes occurred more frequently than violent crimes, the study finds, with the five most prevalent crimes in 2003 being non-violent: housebreaking, corruption, theft of personal property, theft out of vehicles, and livestock theft.
Housebreaking was the most common crime in 2003, with 7.5% of South Africans being victims.
"A significant proportion of people (5.6%) reported being asked by a government official for a bribe in the
form of money, a favour or a present in return for a service that the official was legally required to perform", the ISS said in a statement on the release of the survey, adding that this corruption "was most evident in encounters with traffic officials, followed by the police, and when interacting with officials for employment opportunities".
Theft of personal property was experienced by 4.7% of people, and theft out of vehicles and livestock theft by 2.5% of people each.
The most prevalent violent crimes, according to the study, were assault (experienced by 2.2% of the sample) and robbery (2%). "As expected, given results of previous surveys and the official crime statistics, less than 1% of respondents said they were victims of sexual assault, car hijacking or that a member of their household was murdered", the ISS said.
"It is significant that the only crime type that has increased since 1998 is housebreaking, which went up marginally from 7.2% in 1998 to 7.5%
in 2003. Theft out of vehicles and motor vehicle vandalism remained the same during the five-year period, and all other crimes have decreased since 1998.
"These results would then confirm that crime has indeed stabilised between 1998 and 2003, and in some cases decreased slightly."
Crime: perceptions vs reality
However, while the survey's findings on crime trends in the past five years "are certainly cause for optimism", the ISS warned politicians and policy makers not to lose sight of the fact that public perceptions about crime are much less positive.
"Although the level of crime has dropped fractionally since 1998, 53% of those surveyed believe that crime has increased in the past three years", the study found. "These views are particularly prevalent among people in metropolitan and urban areas, and among Indian and white South Africans.
"Continuing in this trend of negative public perception about crime and safety,
significantly less South Africans feel safe in 2003 than they did in 1998."
In 1998, according to the study, 60% of South Africans said they felt very safe walking in the areas where they live during the day. This figure dropped to only 25% in 2003. At night, only 25% said they felt very unsafe in 1998, compared to 58% in 2003.
These views differed markedly by race, with a minority of Indians (11%) and whites (35%) feeling very safe during the day, compared to a majority of coloureds (62%) and blacks (64%).
And even though people are much more likely to become victims of property crimes, five of the top six crimes that South Africans are most afraid of are violent: 25% worry most about murder, 23% about burglary, 18% about sexual assault, 13% about robbery, 5% about assault and 4% about car hijacking.
"There is little doubt that, even though crime has levelled off since 1998, violence remains the key challenge for the country", the ISS said.
Police, courts, 'well placed to respond'
The police and courts are, according to the survey results on public access and views of their performance, well placed to respond to the crime situation.
Almost all respondents (97%) knew where their nearest police station was, and 84% knew where the nearest magistrate's court was located.
Physical access was also good: two-thirds of people (66%) said the police station was less than 30 minutes away using their usual mode of transport, and 51% said it took less than half an hour to reach the court.
Most South Africans (70%) who have been to court are satisfied with the overall performance of officials, the survey reveals. "In the case of the police, although there is significant variation by race and province, just over half of all South Africans (52%) think the police are doing a 'good job' in their areas of residence."
In Gauteng - at the bottom of the provincial ranking - only 45% said
the police are doing a good job, compared to 62% in the Free State, which tops the ranking. And while only 22% of Indians said the police were doing a good job, whites (47%), coloureds (48%) and blacks (54%) were much more positive.
SouthAfrica.info reporter
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