INTRODUCTION TO CRIMINOLOGY –CFSD 101
Term 1: 2023
Term 1 Course Content
Theme 1: An Introduction to Criminology in South Africa-
Crime and Criminology
Theme 2: The South African Criminal Justice System (CJS)
Theme 3: Criminological Theories (Schools of Thought)
Theme 4: Measuring the Levels of Crime
Theme 5 : Elementary Research Methodology in
Criminology and Forensic Studies
Prescribed Book:
Bezuidenhout, C (Editor). (2020). A Southern African
Perspective on Fundamental [Link]
Education. South Africa.
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Theme 4: Measuring the levels of Crime
• Criminology is described as the scientific study of crime-
thus the main focus is crime.
• There is no simple explanation for crime occurrence
• Research on crime statistics (derived from various
sources)
• Determining crime trends and a study of the extent of the
crime phenomenon, can contribute to the fight against
crime in the use of preventative strategies
The causes of crime in South Africa- widely debated in the
public arena.
In SA- a tendency to solve our personal, economic and
social problems through violence. Most often the problem
is blamed on:
♠ a “culture of violence” which has resulted from years of
apartheid brutality,
♠ the breakdown of the family unit,
♠ lack of respect for others and
♠ The subordinate position of women.
Other contributing factors are:
♠ the significant level of unemployment
♠ The inherent social and economic inequalities in society.
The impact of crime on SA- not uniform
• Increases in crime appear to affect different parts of society
differently.
• This implies that since not all-S Africans are exposed to
equal dangers, different strategies should be used in
different areas to control crime.
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PERCEPTIONS
Common perception in South Africa:
♠ Crime only began to increase from 1990 onwards, in
conjunction with political transition. Most serious crimes,
notably murder, robbery and housebreaking, began to
increase from the mid-1980s onwards.
South Africa's crime problem is not recent. Crime
increased significantly during the 1980s, when the
Apartheid State was most strongly challenged.
The increase in levels of crime peaked in 1990 the year in
which the political transition began.
CRIME STATISTICS
♠ In SA crimes are recorded and tabulated as statistics by
the Department of Statistics.
♠ The police, the courts and the prisons/corrections give
the data (statistics) to Statistics South Africa.
♠ Data are then processed- a report is published annually
in which all the details of the number increase/decline
and other information on crime in South Africa are
reflected.
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1) POLICE STATISTICS
♠ Describes the crime.
♠ Although these records represent the most reliable and
comprehensive sources of information on crime and are useful
for crime studies- not all crimes are reported to police.
♠ Police statistics provides details of :
♠ how and when the crime was committed,
♠ who committed it,
♠ who the victim was and
♠ What injuries or losses were suffered?
2) COURT STATISTICS:
♠ Although they deal with the persons involved in crime, they
include only material brought forward in court.
♠ Therefore these statistics are lower than police statistics.
3) PRISON STATISTICS:
♠ This refers to crimes where imprisonment was imposed.
♠ The number of offenders who are sentenced to imprisonment
by the courts and the release policy of the Department of
Correctional Services influence the size of the SA prison
population.
Statistics are usually collected on:
♠ Offences
♠ Offenders
♠ Victims
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SHORTCOMINGS OF OFFICIAL CRIME STATISTICS
1. Include only those crimes, which are reported to the police.
Crimes are therefore committed which are never included in the
statistics.
2. Crime statistics are often expressed in relation to the total
population - big section of the population, children under the age
of 10 and mentally ill people not taken into stats.
3. Statistics do not take into account the relationship between
crimes and offenders. E.g., one offender could commit a whole
number of crimes.
4. What constitutes a crime in one country is not a crime in
another country.
CRIME TRENDS
♠ Crime trends refer to the rise and decline in crime in a
particular year.
♠ These rises and drops are caused by factors like the economic
condition in the country, educational level and age group.
♠ When we study crime patterns and trends, it is clear that an
equal number of crimes are not committed in all areas.
♠ More crimes are committed in some parts of a country than
others
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CRIME information analysis Centre (CIAC)
♠ In 1998 CIAC, a national structure, was put in place at
provincial, national as well as area level, down to station level
in order to analyse all crimes.
♠ Established to give direction to the station with regards to
crime combating.
Thus, various trends emerge from the statistics.
National Crime Prevention Strategy (NCPS)
♠ 1996- National Crime Prevention Strategy (NCPS)-First
comprehensive strategy for the prevention of crime.
♠ It lists seven crimes, which pose the greatest threat to the
citizens and the welfare of the country, namely:
Crime with firearms, which has allowed violence to
increase to a great extent.
Organised crime, e.g. drug smuggling, illegal
immigration, which have risen sharply since South
Africa's readmission to the international community.
White collar crime.
Gender violence and crimes against children.
violence added to conflict between groups such as that
in KwaZulu-Natal
Vehicle theft and hijacking
Corruption in the CJS.
The NCPS is based on the premise:
♠ A shift from reactive crime control, which deploys most
resources towards responding after the crimes are committed
♠ To proactive crime prevention- preventing crime from
occurring at all.
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DATA COLLECTION IN USA
Stats come from 2 Programs:
♠ Bureau of Justice (BJS)- conducts annual National
Crime Victimisation Survey (NCVS)
♠ Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) - Uniform crime
Reporting Program (UCR) and its incident-driven
National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS)
1. Uniform crime Reporting Program (UCR)
• The UCR-primary source of crime stats in US for more than
50 yrs.-first collected in 1930
• Own specialised definitions of deciding which events should
be scored as crimes
• Only crimes that are reported to police-included in statistics
• Unreported crimes not included
• Criticised for underestimating the actual incidence of crime
2. National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS)
• incident driven-FBI collect detailed data on the circumstances
surrounding each serious criminal incident
• Related to other available e.g. Victim and offender
characteristics
• develops individual records for each reported crime incident
and its associated arrest
• Criticised for underestimating the actual incidence of crime
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3. National Crime Victimisation Survey (NCVS)
• began in 1972
• consist of info derived through interviews with members of
randomly selected households
• used to study geographical and temporal variations in crime
rate
• provides basis for evaluating local and national law
enforcement practices
• criticised for over-reporting
UNOFFICIAL CRIME STATISTICS
Victim Surveys:
a. Interviews with the victims of crime. National victim
surveys provide information on victimization rates and
vulnerable groups of people.
b. Core value lies in that they interview the victims of
crime and so complement police statistics (which
focuses on data about perpetrators).
c. Provide understanding of public perception of crime.
Offer insight into extent of “dark figures” of crime.
1. Comparing victim surveys from other countries
Fraught with difficulty:
a) Different definitions exist of specific crimes;
b) Different levels of reporting and policing traditions;
c) Different socio-economic and political contexts exist
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2. The Strengths of Victim Surveys:
a. Show extent of multiple victimisations. Most people
feel more comfortable reporting crime via victim
surveys.
b. Crucial for crime prevention; proactive policing;
resource allocation and formulating justice policies.
3. Evaluation of Victim Surveys:
a. Precise details of a crime are not always recorded
therefore results subject to sample error.
b. Victim surveys are a poor way to collect data on, for
example, rape, as victims are reluctant to speak about
their experience to fieldworkers.
c. General surveys do not record crimes against
businesses; children; and offences including drugs
and firearms.
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