Overall, crime has decreased, but violent crime is up.
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South Africa’s crime stats for the 2016/2017 were released on Tuesday. According to the stats, “approximately 2.1 million serious crime counts were recorded, of which 1 738 980 were community-reported serious crimes.”
In this time period, 19 016 murder cases were reported, the highest in 10 years. Carjacking also continues to increase massively, as does cash in transit heists.
Crimes that saw a decrease
- Contact-related crime decreased by 3.3% in 2016/2017, following upon a decrease of 0.8% during the preceding financial year and an increase of 1.9% recorded during 2014/20015. However, this is somewhat misleading as murder falls in this category and has seen an increase – see below
- Assault with the intent to cause grievous bodily harm decreased by 6.7%
- Property-related crime experienced a decrease of 0.5% in 2016/2017. This follows upon decreases of 1.8% and 0.8% respectively during the two preceding financial years.
- Other serious crimes decreased by 2.0% in 2016/2017, following upon decreases of 4.1% in 2015/2016 and 2.2% during 2014/2015.
- 4% drop in the number of rapes reported to police in 2016/2017 compared to previous year – note that is reported, and does not mean the act has decreased
- Arson decreased by 11.9%
Crimes that have increased
- Murder is up by 1.8% attempted murder up 0.4%, aggravated robbery up 6.4%
- 0.9% increase in the number of sexual assaults reported to police in 2016/2017
- Hijackings have increased by 14.5%
- Robbery at residential premises is also at its highest in 10 years with 22 343 reported cases, an increase of 7.3% this year.
- Robbery with aggravating circumstances increased by 6.4% – also the highest it has been in a decade
- Cash in transit robberies increased by 10.9%
Biggest increase to biggest decrease in crimes 2017
| Type of crime | 2016 | 2017 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Carjacking | 14 602 | 16 717 | +14.48% |
| Drug-related crime | 259 165 | 292 689 | +12.94% |
| Robbery of cash in transit | 137 | 152 | +10.95% |
| Illegal possession of firearms and ammunition | 14 772 | 16 134 | +9.22% |
| Stock-theft | 24 715 | 26 902 | +8.85% |
| Robbery at residential premises | 20 820 | 22 343 | +7.32% |
| Robbery with aggravating circumstances | 132 527 | 140 956 | +6.36% |
| Sexual offences discovered as result of police action | 5 830 | 6 164 | +5.63% |
| Commercial crime | 69 917 | 73 550 | +5.20% |
| Robbery at non-residential premises | 19 698 | 20 680 | +4.99% |
| Murder | 18 673 | 19 016 | +1.84% |
| Burglary at non-residential premises | 75 008 | 75 618 | +0.81% |
| Attempted murder | 18 127 | 18 205 | +0.43% |
| Truck hijacking | 1 184 | 1 183 | -0.08% |
| Theft out of or from motor vehicle | 139 386 | 138 172 | -0.87% |
| Theft of motor vehicle and motorcycle | 53 809 | 53 307 | -0.93% |
| Common robbery | 54 110 | 53 418 | -1.28% |
| Driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs | 76 159 | 75 034 | -1.48% |
| Burglary at residential premises | 250 606 | 246 654 | -1.58% |
| Shoplifting | 68 786 | 67 454 | -1.94% |
| Malicious injury to property | 119 901 | 116 409 | -2.91% |
| All theft not mentioned elsewhere | 340 372 | 328 272 | -3.55% |
| Common assault | 164 958 | 156 450 | -5.16% |
| Sexual Offences | 51 895 | 49 660 | -4.31% |
| Assault with the intent to inflict grievous bodily harm | 182 933 | 170 616 | -6.73% |
| Arson | 4 903 | 4 321 | -11.87% |
| Bank robbery | 6 | 3 | -50.00% |
#CrimeStats in a nutshell: South Africa’s murder rate up by 1.8%