[According to official Govt statistics CRIME IS DECREASING. But… I never trust their stats anyway. Here we see a survey that says the opposite!!! Note too who the victims of crime are. Jan]

Cape Town – One in every five South Africans or a member of their families will become a victim of crime over a period of six months.

However, more than a quarter (about 865 000) of these crimes will not even be reported. Most South Africans are also of the opinion that crime is on the increase. These statistics formed part of the results of a recent survey on social and financial subjects by the firm ACNielsen.

This international company has been doing business sector market research for the past 80 years. Nearly 2 500 South Africans were polled in rural and urban areas in April.

The majority of adults (58%) believed crime had increased since 2002. Residents of the Free State proved to be the most optimistic citizens of the country, while those of KwaZulu-Natal were most pessimistic about crime.

In general, people from wealthier homes were more pessimistic, no matter what their age. Women also tended to be more pessimistic than men. An analysis of the statistics showed that whites were victims in about 30% of the cases (1.14 million people). Black urban dwellers were direct or indirect (involving a family member) victims in 15% of cases (1.64 million people).

Crime affected wealthy families and the younger members of society more than others.

‘Police won’t investigate’

The main reason for people not reporting crime was because victims were of the opinion that police would not investigate the crime. About 12% of respondents indicated that even if police investigated, they would not be able to solve the case because of their large caseload.

Another reason cited was previous bad experiences with the police and 6% of respondents said there was little or any response when they appealed to police for help before. A small number of victims kept quiet out of fear for victimisation, while a few were afraid that police would treat them badly.

The research showed that police in the Eastern Cape has the most positive image among victims of crime, while the Western Cape police had second best image.

Nikki Quinn, a researcher with ACNielsen, said the results of the survey showed people were pessimistic about crime in the country. On the one hand, their expectations of police were lower than what one would have liked to see, but at the same time there was a degree of sympathy for police because an increase in their workload hampered their performance.

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Source: News24.Com
URL: http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/New…/p>