Crime stats show spike despite under-reporting

When citizens do not take the trouble to report less serious crimes, criminals become emboldened and over time may ‘graduate’ from being small time thieves to becoming hardened housebreakers. Under-reporting of crime remains a problem in South Africa according to a recent Statistics South Africa survey and Blue Security managing director Henk van Bemmelen urges citizens to stand and be counted in the fight against crime.
South Africans are worried about the safety of their families at home and in their neighbourhoods, but many don’t bother to report crime even though they feel violent crime is rising. These were some of the concerning trends highlighted in Statistics South Africa’s recently released Victims of Crime Survey 2014/15, and one that we as responsible citizens need to address if we are to work as efficiently as possible with the police to fight crime effectively.
Our committed police officers – and there are many of them as the survey also revealed – can only do their best with the limited resources the government allocates to police stations based on caseload and demand for services. But if crime is under-reported resources can’t be adequately motivated for and criminals get the upper hand every time.
Crime on the rise
According to the Statistics SA survey housebreaking increased from 4,6% in 2010 to 5,1% in 2014/15. Home robbery decreased from 2,6% to 1,2% in the same period and about 2,1% of people surveyed had experienced theft of their personal property, while 0,9% experienced assault in 2014/15.
Other findings included:
• A decline in the number of households whose members felt safe when it was dark, compared to 2011. Slightly more than a third of household members felt safe walking alone in their neighbourhood.
• More than half of households took measures to physically protect their homes, while almost a third took measures to protect their vehicles due to fear of crime.
• More than three-quarters of households believed the motive for property crimes were drug-related.This perception featured predominantly in the Western Cape (85,7%), Eastern Cape (84,6%) and Gauteng (81,5%).
• About 90 percent of households believed children were vulnerable to human trafficking, which they understood as being for sexual exploitation and to extract body parts.
Housebreaking fears highlighted
Housebreaking was viewed as one of the most feared and common crimes along with home robbery. But despite this fear households were less likely to report housebreaking and theft to the police, although contact crimes like murder were more likely to be reported. Most households that did not report these crimes said they believed the police would do nothing about their cases.
According to the survey household satisfaction with the performance of the police and courts has declined since 2010. Some 57% of households were satisfied with the police, and about 54% were satisfied with the courts in 2014/15.
Interestingly, people who were satisfied with the courts were of the view that they passed appropriate sentences, while those who were happy with the police said they arrived at crime scenes and were committed to their work. This raises the question of whether people expressing dissatisfaction have personally been let down by the police and criminal justice system or whether their preconceived perceptions of an overburdened police force have given rise to apathy. It is an exasperating situation and only criminals benefit from the under reporting of crime.
Criminals arrested and released
As a security company we often attend crime scenes and arrest suspects for crimes like vandalism, theft and housebreaking and sadly residents do not always want to report these crimes to the police. We often arrest suspects and on the instruction of residents reluctantly release them with a warning because the police’s hands are tied if people do not press charges.
Unfortunately, these perpetrators having narrowly escaped the law once, become emboldened to commit more serious crimes and to terrorise neighbourhoods, while overburdened police stations remain under resourced partly because of under reporting. It’s a vicious circle.
But if more law abiding citizens took the time to report crimes – from the smallest vandalism and petty theft, to more serious crimes like housebreaking – it could made a real difference in the allocation of resources to police stations. Taking a stand by reporting crime can help our police officers do their jobs better, send the message that neighbourhoods won’t tolerate crime, and go some way to slowing the downward spiral that turns once small time criminals into hardened housebreakers, who fuel the fear around safety and security in our homes.
Henk van Bemmelen is the managing director of Blue Security, a multiple award winning Durban based security company that specialises in home, small business and commercial intruder detection alarm and security systems and armed response services.