Crime's not that bad in South Africa: it's worse
Bongani Mthethwa	Published:Jun 22, 2008
Mean Streets: Young sex workers ply their trade near the youth summit venue in Durban. Picture: Thembinkosi Dwayisa We're one of the most violent and murderous nations in the world, says UN Article Tools   Print  E-Mail Save and Share South Africa has the dubious distinction of being among the world's five most-murderous nations. Research presented by the United Nations Human Settlement Programme (UN-Habitat) ranks the country among the top five highest murder rates in the world, together with Colombia, Jamaica, Guatemala and Venezuela. The research found that South Africa has the world's fourth-highest robbery rate after Venezuela, Colombia and Brazil. The research was presented at the International Youth Crime Prevention and Cities Summit, which ended in Durban yesterday. Ten years ago, South Africa had the highest recorded per capita murder rate of the countries selected in an Interpol report. In 1998 there were 59 recorded murders per 100000 of the country's population, followed by Colombia with 56 murders per 100000. And while the SA Police Service insists the murder rate is down — from 22.7 per 100000 in 2001/02 to 18.7 murders per 100000 in 2007/08 — the UN settlement programme is not convinced. Zahra Hassan, a spokesman for UN-Habitat, said they were confident of the accuracy of their statistics, because they were based on research conducted alongside government officials, NGOs and other community organisations. She would not say where exactly in the top five SA rated, but allowed that more detailed statistics would be released during the publication of the State of the Cities report in the next few months. The SAPS will release its latest crime statistics on June 30. The UN programme's overview has also shown crime rates at both global and regional levels have increased steadily between 1980 and 2000, rising about 30% from 2 300 crimes per 100 000 people to more than 3000 . In South Africa, the number of private security guards has increased by 150% since 1997 — an indication of a loss of confidence in the ability of the relevant authorities to cope with growing levels of crime . While the country has long had a reputation for being dangerous , the UN statistics should be treated with caution, says Johan Burger, a senior researcher in the crime, justice and police programme at the Institute for Security Studies . Burger said on Friday that it was difficult to make a comparison with the crime statistics of other nations, as many countries didn't report their crime rates to the UN or Interpol. "I think everyone would agree that certainly as far as our violent crime is concerned, we must be among the leading countries in the world. But there's no way we can say with any certainty where we rank amongst those countries," said Burger. Lionel Arnolds, project manager at the Centre for Justice and Crime Prevention, said it was shocking that SA was ranked as one of the countries with the highest homicide rates in the world. "But what we must understand is that crime is a universal phenomenon. I suppose it's a realisation for us to look at policy around crime prevention," he said. Arnolds said they had conducted the National Youth Victimisation Survey in 2005, which found that crime and violence was pervasive. The study found that SA's level of violence was unquestionably among the highest in the world, with young people — particularly between 12 and 22 — generally at the receiving end. A research paper presented at the summit by the UN-Habitat revealed that in South Africa during 2005 and 2006: 302000 girls under the age of 18 were raped; 1075 children were murdered; 20879 were assaulted; and 4725 were indecently assaulted. Delegates also discussed the estimated 100 million street children around the world who are associated with drug and human trafficking, violence, child abuse and poverty. Inga Björk-klevby, assistant secretary general and deputy executive director of UN-Habitat told delegates at the summit that there was evidence that increasing numbers of street children in some cities were related to trafficking and organised crime. The UN estimates that each year between 133million and 275million children experience violence at home. Boys and girls are equally subjected to abuse by family members and exploited as child labour, but girls make up 98% of children who are sexually exploited. Arnolds said youth victimisation was also high in South Africa. "While the high rate of youth victimisation is not surprising, what is surprising is that it's committed in places considered to be safe — like schools and homes," Arnolds added.

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