Statistics South Africa, Victims of crime survey 2011, November 24 2011

Summary of the key findings

Public perceptions about crime and safety

Perceptions about crime and safety differed according to several factors, such as employment status, population, group and area of residence. More than 40% of households believed that the level of both violent and non-violent crime had decreased in their area of residence during the period 2008 to 2010. Less than 35% said that crime had increased, while about a quarter of the population believed that crime had stayed the same.

More than half (53,0%) of households perceived housebreaking/burglary to be one of the most common type of crime, followed by home robbery (49,7%), street robbery (40,9%) and pick-pocketing (28,5%). The crimes perceived to be the most feared in the households' area of residence were home robbery (50,4%), housebreaking (50,2%), street robbery (39,7%) and murder (34,1%).

People are affected by crime in different ways, and therefore their perceptions about crime also differ. In 2010, a third of households (33,3%) avoided going to open spaces unaccompanied because of their fear of crime, followed by 22,2% of households who would not allow their children to move around unsupervised by an older person or play freely in their area. A further 14,7% of households wouldn't permit their children to walk to school alone.

Male-headed households were much more likely (54,1%) to feel safe when walking alone during the day than female-headed households (34,1%). Only 22,7% male headed-households felt safer when walking alone when it is dark than 14,3% of the female population. Female headed-households living in Limpopo (24,0%), KwaZulu-Natal (20,6%) and Eastern Cape (16,6%) felt safe walking alone in their area when it is dark.

Households headed by white males (63,8%) tended to feel safer when walking alone during the day than males from other population groups, while black African female headed-households felt safer than households headed by females of other population groups (37,5%). Coloured and white male headed-households (28,7% and 28,3% respectively), were more likely to feel safe walking alone when it is dark compared to black African (21,3%) and Indian/Asian (19,1%) male household heads.

Views about criminals

More than 60% of households believed that property and violent crimes were likely to be committed by people from their area. About 32% believed crimes were committed by people from other areas, while about 7,0% thought that the perpetrators of crime in their neighbourhoods are people from outside South Africa.

A large proportion of households thought that criminals were more likely to be motivated by real needs (57,6%), rather than greed (45,9%) and non-financial motives (28,7%). About 20% thought that criminals were motivated by behavioural issues, such as drug use.

Public perceptions about crime prevention and response to crime

About half of the households took physical measures to protect their homes, while nearly a quarter took physical measures to protect their vehicles. Only 5,3% of households carried a weapon to protect themselves and their property. About two-thirds (65,0%) of households in Gauteng and Western Cape indicated that they took physical protection measures to protect their homes.

In relation to the perceptions of what government should spend money on in order to reduce crime, two-thirds (66,0%) of households were of the view that social and/or economic development was the more effective way of reducing crime. Twenty-one per cent of households indicated that resources should be focused on law enforcement in order to combat crime, while only 13,1% felt that resources should be allocated to the judiciary/courts in order to effectively reduce crime.

Households were also asked about their knowledge of where to take someone to access medical help/counselling or shelter if they were victims of crime. The vast majority (90,5%) of the households knew where to take someone to access medical services if they fell victim to violent crime. Almost half (47,0%) of households did not know where to take someone to access counselling services and only 16,7% knew where to take someone for shelter or a place of safety if they became victims of domestic violence.

More than 70% of households would take someone who was a victim of crime to access medical services to a hospital or trauma unit or a local clinic. Only about 3% would go to a victim empowerment centre or traditional leader/traditional authority.

Public perceptions of law enforcement

Most households (66,4%) travelled less than 30 minutes (when using their usual mode of transport) to the nearest police station. About 60% of households were satisfied with the way police and courts are doing their work. This view was influenced by several factors, such as the time it took for police to respond to a crime, visible policing, conviction rates, and sentencing of perpetrators.

Almost 80% of the households who were satisfied with the police in their area felt the police were committed. A similar proportion (77,9%) believed the police came to the scene of the crime. Furthermore, seven-tenths (70,8%) of households were of the opinion that they are trustworthy.

Western Cape (63,4%) had the highest rate of police patrolling at least once a day, followed by Gauteng (59,1%) and Northern Cape (55,0%). Amongst black African households, 38,8% saw a police official on duty at least once a day and 13,9% never saw them on duty. As many as 60,1% of coloured and 42,1% of white households saw them on duty at least once a day

Crime levels in South Africa

Housebreaking/burglary was the most common crime experienced at least once in 2010 by 4,5% of the households. It was followed by home robbery (2,6%) and theft of livestock (1,4%). Whilst assault (1,7%) was the most common crime experienced by selected individuals, followed by robbery excluding home/carjacking (1,6%).

The extent to which a household crime is reported to the police depends on the type of crime. Theft of a car was most likely to be reported (98,3%), followed by murder (93,2%). About 60% of housebreaking/burglary, deliberate damage of dwelling and home robbery were reported to the police. Household crimes least likely to be reported were theft of crops (16,6%), theft of livestock (36,3%), and motor vehicle vandalism (37,8%).

Consumer fraud (28,2%) was the least likely crime to be reported by selected individual to the police, followed by robbery (excl. home and carjacking) (39,0%). The most likely crime to be reported to the police was sexual offences (92,3%) and followed by theft of motorbike (80,0%).

The following reasons were cited why people didn't report crime to the police. These can be grouped into four main categories:

• Police issues: the households believed that either the police would fail to solve the crime, or at times, police behaviour was inappropriate.
• Perpetrator issues: some households did not report a crime to the police because they could not identify the perpetrator(s), while others feared reprisals from the perpetrator(s).
• Crime-related issues: some households did not report a crime because it was not serious enough, others did not report it because items stolen were not insured or old or not valuable, while others claimed that they had solved the crime themselves.
• Self-blame issues: these included fear of being blamed, belief that it was partly the victim's own fault, and fear of being exposed or embarrassed.

Amongst those who didn't report crime to the police, some had indicated that they reported to a traditional authority, local gang, Community Policing Forum, insurance company, private security, local ward councillor or local vigilante group.

Overview of selected crime types

Corruption

It is widely believed that citizens are being asked for a bribe by government officials for the services they are legally required to perform. The bribes are mostly in the form of money, favours or a present.

The survey showed that since 2007, the proportion of people asked to pay bribes increased significantly in relation to traffic fines. Comparisons with the previous survey indicated that bribes related, to visiting a prison, pension, or bribes involving social welfare grant and identity document or passport applications have decreased. More than half (52,8%) of those who were victims of corruption were asked to pay a bribe to the traffic official to avoid traffic fines. This was most common in Gauteng (62,2%), Western Cape (57,6%) and Eastern Cape (55,8%).

The second highest bribe solicitation was for policing (21,4%), where 33,0% of corruption victims in Western Cape paid bribes to the police. This was also fairly common in Free State (28,9%) and Northern Cape (26,1%). Other sectors where some bribes were solicited include driver's licence (15,9%) and job seekers (13,8%).

Vehicle related crimes

Most vehicle and bicycle related crimes occurred at home. Almost three quarters (76,6%) of selected individuals had their bicycles stolen from their homes. More than two third of households had experienced theft from a car home, whilst 53,1% of cars were stolen at home. About 46% of households who had experienced motor vehicle vandalism reported that their motor vehicles were vandalised at their homes. About 40% of the selected individuals had reported that their cars were hijacked at their homes.

Car thefts are most likely to be committed in the afternoon, while theft from a car was more likely to occur at night and car-hijacking incidents occurred mostly when it was dark.

Housebreaking/burglary

Households thought that housebreaking/burglary was the most common crime and home robbery the most feared crime in their area. The results also show that it was the crime most experienced in South Africa (4,5%). Most housebreakings/burglaries occurred at night (30,2%), during the afternoon hours (22,0%) and in the morning hours (15,9%). North West (55,2%) had the highest rate for housebreakings at night.

More than four out of ten (43,0%) households indicated that the burglar gained entry through a smashed door. The highest proportion of smashed door entries was recorded in Mpumalanga (58,9%), Gauteng (53,1%) and North West (45,8%). The second way most used to gain access into the dwelling was through the window (34,5%). This was mostly likely to happen in the Northern Cape (45,0%), KwaZulu-Natal (43,3%) and Western Cape (41,5%).

Robbery (excluding home robbery and car/truck hijacking)

Public perception held that robbery (excluding home robbery/truck hijacking) was one of the most common types of crime. It commonly occurred in the streets in residential areas (59,6%), and in streets outside offices or shops (10,4%). The provinces that experienced the highest rate of robbery were Northern Cape (76,0%), North West (74,1%) and Gauteng (69,1%). Victims from Free State (16,0%), Mpumalanga (15,9%), and Western Cape (14,0%) experienced robbery in the street outside offices or shops. Perpetrators of crime mostly used physical force (56,2%), a knife (44,3%) or axe/stick/panga (23,4%) during robberies.

Assault and sexual offences

Assault and sexual offences are difficult to capture in a household survey because of their sensitivity, and as a result they are normally under-reported. The results show that most perpetrators were known people from areas other than the area of residence of the victim (selected individuals). Nearly a third (29,9%) of the victims of assault were attacked by a known community member in their area, their spouse or partner (20,9%), while only 10,5% stated that the perpetrator(s) was an unknown community member.

When it comes to sexual offences, 38,4% of victims were victimised by a known community member(s) in the area of residence.

In 2010, most incidents of assault (35,7%) occurred at home, while 18,6% occurred in the streets outside offices/shops. A third (33,6%) of sexual offences (including sexual assault, rape and domestic sexual abuse) occurred in a field or in parks, followed by 29,8% that took place at home. It was recorded that 18,5% of sexual offences took place at someone else's home.

One fifth (20,6%) of the victims who were assaulted thought that the motive was jealousy; a further 17,4% thought money or other financial motives or sudden personal anger motivated the assault, whilst 12,1% asserted that they were assaulted because of long-term personal anger. Other motives mentioned by a negligible proportion of victims were attempted rape, racial, ethnic or political motivation that led to the assault, and outstanding debt.

More than 90% of the perpetrators of sexual offences used physical force, followed by using a gun (31,5%) and a knife (24,5%).

Murder

In South Africa, 23,3% of the households believed that murderers were motivated by money or financial gains to commit such crime. Jealousy, sudden personal anger and attempted rape were other reasons considered by many households to be a motive to commit murder. Notably, racial, ethnic or political motive was considered by only 2,5% of the households to be a cause for murder.

A large proportion (37,2%) of victims was murdered by known community members, followed by a spouse/lover (18,2%), and friends/acquaintances(12,1%). Slightly more than a tenth (10,9%) of murders were committed by known people from neighbouring areas and 7,8% were committed by unknown people from neighbouring areas.

This is an extract. The full report can be accessed here.

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