CRIME COMBATING AND THE POLICESeptember 2012

Johan BurgerCrime & Justice Programme

INSTITUTE FOR SECURITY STUDIES

• Photo’s from the M & G

• The impossible mandate

• UN guidelines on the prevention of crime

• Factors contributing to crime

• Relationships, motives & conditions for crime

• Inequality and crime

• Burglary, commercial crime & shoplifting

• Unemployment & poverty rates

• Crime and decreases in the UK

• The root of evil & again the impossible mandate

• Are we solving the problem & do we need more police?

• Crime control and the police

• Can the police prevent crime?

• Crime combating model

Presentation Outline

3

Causes Protests Implications

Photo’s from the Mail & Guardian

Section 205 (3) of the SA Constitution re the ‘objects’ of the SA Police Service:• to prevent, combat and investigate crime;• to maintain public order;• to protect and secure the inhabitants of the Republic

and their property; and • to uphold and enforce the law

The impossible mandate

UN Guidelines on the Prevention of Crime (2002):

‘crime prevention comprises strategies and measures that seek to reduce the risk of crimes occurring,

and their potential harmful effects on individuals and society, including fear

of crime, by intervening to influence their multiple causes’

Defining crime prevention

Socio-economic conditions

Attitudes to crime/violence

Facilitating factors

Weak regulatory systems

High levels of crime & violence

+ + + =

Factors contributing to crime & violence

•Urbanisation & poor infra-structure

•Poor housing•Poverty and unemploym.

•Dysfunctional families, schools, etc

•Low levels of education

•Absence of after school & childcare, recreational facilities, etc

•Early experiences of violence

•Culture of violence

•Ready rationali-sation of crimi-nality

•Poor socialisation•Poor anger-and conflict management•Status of women & children

•Alcohol•Drugs•Gangs•Firearms•Poor urban

design•Lack of safe

public trans-port

• Xenophobia

• Weaknesses in CJS (training, resources, corruption, etc.)

• Poor law enforcement (incl. by-laws)

• Weaknesses in licensing system

• Weaknesses in transport regu-lation (e.g taxi’s)

•Weaknesses in school system

Relationships & motives relating to murder

Perpetrators known to victims

Perpetrators as relatives, friends, etc

Relatives as perpetrators

80% 60% 20%

Relationships

Motives/ConditionsSocial behaviour(E.g. domestic conflict such as arguments, jealousy, alcohol & drug abuse, etc)

Criminalbehaviour (E.g. resulting from other crime such as robbery, etc)

Group behaviour(E.g. gang & taxi violence, vigilantism, etc)

Other(E.g. retaliation, self-defence, police actions, etc)

65% 16% 7% 12%

Att murder - 60% Rape - 75% Assault - 90%

Inequality as a possible explanation forsome crimes (South Africa)

(Independent researcher Michael O’Donovan – attempting to explain the correlation betw crime rates and socio-economic conditions):• One of the most reliable predictors of high crime levels in an

area is the size of the income gap between it and the poorest neighbouring area

• The greater the gap the higher the rate of property crime in the more affluent area

(Also: ‘Inequality is thought to exacerbate feelings of alienation, deprivation or injustice. These affronts facilitate the de-legitimisation of the state, aspirational frustration, and the dissolution of the sense of community. This, in turn, allows for higher crime rates as the constraints on anti-social and criminal behaviour are weakened, the power of the state undermined, and the moral justification

for being law-abiding wanes’)

2003/04 2004/05 2005/06 2006/07 2007/08 2008/09 2009/10 2010\110

100

200

300

400

500

600

700645.2

592.8559.9

526.8497.1 506.5 520.2

495.3

139.3120.3 116 123.3 131.7 143.8 145.5 138.2

Res Burglary Bus Burglary

Residential & non-residential burglary(Rates per 100 000)

03/04 04/05 05/06 06/07 07/08 08/09 09/10 10/110

10,000

20,000

30,000

40,000

50,000

60,000

70,000

80,000

90,000

100,000

55,869 53,931 54,214

61,69065,286

77,474

84,842

88,388

71,88866,525 64,491 65,489 66,992

80,773

88,634

78,383

Commercial Crime Shoplifting

Commercial crime & shoplifting

• National unemployment rate for SA: 25%(Stats SA)

• Poorest areas unemployment as high as 75% (inclusive of economically inactive persons)

• Poverty rate in places such as Alfred Nzo DM is 76% (i.e. households with an income below R800 per month)

• Alfred Nzo & OR Tambo DM also has highest level of deprivation, i.e. 4.5 out of 5 (SAIRR)

• Visible & growing gap between rich and poor (Report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development)

Some unemployment and poverty rates(South Africa)

(According to the British Crime Survey 2009/10 the fall in crime figures might be seen as surprising because of expectations that the economic recession would lead to an increase in crime, particularly property crime)

• The British Crime Survey shows a 43% fall since 1997 as police records confirm far fewer offences. Crime in England and Wales fell by 9% in 2010 to its lowest level since comparable records began in 1981.

• There were further substantial falls in car crime, down by 17%, and domestic burglary, down by 9%.

• The continuing fall in crime from a peak in 1995, is confirmed by figures showing crimes recorded by the police, which fell by 8%

Crime decreases in the UK (as an example)

Possible explanations:

• ‘There are competing hypotheses and no single definitive explanation for the fall in crimes and it seems likely that a number of different factors have contributed, in different ways, although there is broad support for the impact of improved vehicle and household security’

• ‘The wide range of explanations include: the presence of CCTV

cameras in car parks, local crime reduction initiatives, reductions in the real value of many household items, social change and controls, a strong economy & improvements in police performance and increases in police numbers’

Crime decreases in the UK: Theoretical explanations

‘There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil

to one who is striking at the root’

(Henry D Thoreau 1817 – 1862)

The root of evil &the impossible mandate

‘With fear of crime at all-time high levels, our national political leaders propose dramatic solutions to the ‘crime problem’

They focus on … incarceration policies, construction of more prisons, tighter gun control, and increasing the number of

police on the streets’

(Kelling & Coles, Fixing broken windows …, 1997)

Are we solving the problem?

Mr Kenneth Baker, British Home Secretary in the Thatcher government, in his memoirs in 1990:

“… while several of my ministerial colleaguesand Tory MP’s supported the police in public,

they were highly critical of them in private.There was impatience, if not anger, that although we had spent 87% more in real terms since 1979,

and had increased police numbers by 27 000, there had still been a substantial increase in crime.“

Do we need more police?

Robert Reiner (1994), quoting from Raymond Chandler in The long goodbye:

… using the cops to control crime and other complex social problems is like taking aspirin to cure a brain tumour, but ‘no way has yet been invented to say goodbye to them’

Morgan & Newburn (1997) in The future of policing:

… it is also very clear that we cannot go on as we have been doing … We must establish what the fundamental role and

functions of the police are to be

Crime control and the police

So, can the police prevent crime?

‘The police do not prevent crime. This is one of the best-kept secrets of modern life. Experts know it, the police know it, but the public does not know it. Yet the police

pretend that they are society’s best defence against crime and continually argue that if they are given more resources,

especially personnel, they will be able to protect communities against crime. This is a myth.’

Prof David Bayley in Police for the Future (1994)

Combating (fighting) crime

PolicingShort-term interventions

Private security

Crime preventionLong-term interventions

Proactive Policing

• Visible policing• Law enforce- ment• Order main- tenance

Reactive Policing

• Crime investi- gation• Law enforce- ment• Order

restora- tion

ArrestsDeterrence

• Socio-economic interventions (social crime prevention)

• Crime prevention through environ-

mental design

• Deterrence through effective Criminal Justice System

Info

rmati

on

Other interv.(other depts & com. initia-tives)

Conclusion• In the US & UK some established explanations re the socio-

economic roots of crime are now being questioned after marked crime decreases in spite of the economic recession – however no generally accepted alternative explanations are available

• South Africa initially experienced a different reaction to the recession with some economic and social ‘fabric’ crimes showing corresponding increases, before the latest decreases

• Local research appear to support a link at least between inequality and property related crime

• Docket analysis also indicate a clear relationship at least between social conditions and inter-personal violent crime

• There is a clear need to redefine the role of the police ----- : -----

Thank you / Baie dankieJOHAN BURGERTel 012 346 9500

jburger@issafrica.orgwww.issafrica.org