South Africa Crime 2013

Crime is a prominent issue in South Africa. South Africa has a very high rate of murders, assaults, rapes (adult, child and infant), and other crimes compared to most countries. Most emigrants from South Africa state that crime was a big factor in their decision to leave.[1] The South African Police Service is responsible for managing 1115 police stations across South Africa.[2]

Around 50 people are murdered in South Africa each day.[6] The murder rate has increased by an order of magnitude in South Africa during the last 40 years,[7] though it has fallen from 66.9 per 100,000 people in 1994–95 to 37.3 in 2008–09.[8] From 2003–2009, crime decreased significantly according to official police data.[9] Between 1994 and 2009, the murder rate reduced by 50% to 34 murders per 100,000 people.[10] The annual crime statistics released in 2011 show a continuing downward trend, except for rape, which went up by 2.1%.[11] Business Against Crime attributed the reduction to improvements in the criminal justice system and policing.[11] There have been numerous press reports on the manipulation of crime statistics that have highlighted the existence of incentives not to record violent crime.[12] Nonetheless, murder statistics are considered accurate.[8]Homicides per 100,000 from April to March:[13]

The country has one of the highest rates of rape in the world, with some 65,000 rapes and other sexual assaults reported for the year ending in March 2012, or 127.6 per 100,000 people in the country.[1] [15] The incidence of rape has led to the country being referred to as the “rape capital of the world”.[16] One in three of the 4,000 women questioned by the Community of Information, Empowerment and Transparency said they had been raped in the past year.[17] More than 25 per cent of South African men questioned in a survey published by the Medical Research Council (MRC) in June 2009 admitted to rape; of those, nearly half said they had raped more than one person.[18][19] Three out of four of those who had admitted rape indicated that they had attacked for the first time during their teens.[18] South Africa has amongst the highest incidences of child and baby rape in the world. If the rapist is convicted, his prison time would be around 2 years.[20] [21]Car hijackingsSouth Africa also has a high record of car hijackings when compared with industrialised countries.[22]A South African insurance company, Hollard Insurance, stated in 2007 that they would no longer insure Volkswagen Citi Golfs manufactured in the previous two years as they were one of the most frequently hijacked vehicles in South Africa.[23] Certain high-risk areas are marked with road signs indicating a high incidence of car hi-jackings within the locality.