Relative perceptions of crime in South Africa

Aside from the issue of AIDS, arguably one of the most controversial topics in South Africa, and by anyone remotely interested in South Africa, is crime. It seems impossible to discuss the country without the topic of crime, amongst other perhaps equally controversial topics, cropping up? Having lived in South Africa for 7 years and recently relocated to England, I am still baffled by the exceptional and convoluted emotions that crime in South Africa seems to conjure up! Some views of South Africa are so bewildering that sometimes I wonder whether it is the same South Africa that was home for so many of my blissful years.

The obvious and inescapable verdict from the court of public opinion both within and without South Africa seems to be that it is a country awash with utterly unfettered criminal activity. A country where criminals roam free, turning ordinary hard-working folks into victims with impunity and authorities labelled passively complicit to the crime wave. Of course there is no defence to this view. All one need do is pick up any newspaper, listen or watch to any news bulletin. Such brazen crimes as blowing up ATM machines with commercial explosives or executing cash heists with Hollywood style car chase choreography in Johannesburg rush hour traffic and it strikes you - crime is rife in South Africa.

Well, that’s a story you have heard, and that is the story you hear from some self proclaimed "crime refugees" from South Africans now living in England? Hearing an impassionate damnation of South Africa from one that left in 1998 seems rather decrepit an excuse, especially because it always seems to be the case that the victim was some close relative, or friend, rather than the protagonist directly.

Having freshly come from South Africa, with the horrid stories of crime still fresh on my mind, I wondered if in fact most of the "crime refugees" were now living in crime-free paradise. Of course it had been a lot easier to follow the crime headlines in South Africa, not only because I am, was, an avid listener of SAfm radio, but also because the bulletins of alarming, albeit flamboyant, newspaper headlines designed to instil fear posted along streets poles. Perhaps more effective at maintaining that reality is smiling newspaper vendor standing near "Robots" flashing the headlines directly into your windshield?

That was Johannesburg. Now, with half my life in London being spent in the tube commuting to and from work, the only real access to news has been through freely available, slapstick editorial quality, morning and evening papers. Alas, not long into my stay here I discovered that there was something oddly familiar about the headlines in the papers in London, at least the ones I was reading. Day after day, horrific crime headline after horrific crime headline. In fact, in one particular week in early July, it seemed like entire crime articles from South African papers had been plagiarised, verbatim, and posted into the London papers.

My interest in understanding crime in the UK was further spurred on by an article in the August 19, 2007, Sunday Times issue where it was reported that 64,000 muggings in the UK involved a knife in 2007 alone. That's a daily rate of 175 robberies at knife point? Armed with this shocking revelation, I decided to investigate further the crime rate in a country many South African "crime refugees" chose to escape the crime in South Africa.

My discovery could not have been more astounding, here's why;

Population:
UK - 60,776,238 South Africa - 43,997,828
Murder:
UK - 850 South Africa - 21,995
Sexual Offences:
UK - 47,163 South Africa - 53,008
Vehicle theft:
UK - 792,800 South Africa - 99,963
Assaults:
UK - 541,300 South Africa - 535,461
Burglaries:
UK - 622.044 South Africa - 394,557
Fraud:
UK - 232,800 South Africa - 67,076
Other:
Excluded from this analysis
Total:
UK - 5,170,830 South Africa - 3,422,740

*the figures are incidents of reported crime in the respective countries.

A slight glance at the data and the most disconcerting reality is that one is roughly 34 times as likely to get murdered in South Africa as in the UK. However, one is a little over 6 times more likely to suffer vehicle related crime (including theft) in the UK than in South Africa. The UK is also worse off than South Africa in burglary and fraud at equally just a little over 1.5 worse than South Africa.

Overall, and rather interestingly, one is equally as like to be a victim of crime in one form or the other in either South Africa or the UK. Without diminishing the grave reality of murder, on all other crime activities, the numbers seem to suggest that South Africa does not deserve this ill perception of a country adrift with all manner of crime than does say, the UK. So if in fact, South Africa is not that much worse off than the UK on almost all crime indicators, why is there such a stark difference in perceptions?

What immediately comes to mind is the analogy depicted by Steven D. Levitt in his book - Freakonomics, where he contends that perceptions of crime or violence may be driven, not by reality, but perhaps by a collective psyche of fear arising from other factors.

This may be the case here too. Something other than the factual realities maybe driving the adverse perceptions of crime in South Africa, compared to other countries like the UK. What is particularly striking to me is that even though there is a real need to fear being murdered in South Africa, there should be an equal fear of other forms of violent death in the UK, such as falling victim to a terrorism attack. In this case one would naturally expect the many South African "crime refugees" to flee London as it has been perceived to be a target for terrorists. For some reason, this is not the case. In conversations about crime in South Africa where the UK is portrayed as a safe haven for raising children, the threat of terrorism is hardly mentioned. Is this perhaps because South Africa's murder rate alone (at 0.5 per 1,000 people) dwarfs the likelihood of violent death as compared to the UK? Perhaps.

Still I ponder why no one in the UK seems to worry, at least outwardly, on the possibility of voilent death by terrorism. Even recently after the failed attempted attacks, the city population seemed to carry on as normal. As if the threat only existed in some distant land, South Africa perhaps. Clearly the irony for me is why it is more acceptible to face such danger without as much flinch in the UK. Needless to say, I am yet to stumble upon a South African "crime refugee" ready to emigrate from the UK out of fear?

Whether or not the numbers would suggest a grossly exaggerated view of crime, it is time for South Africa to embark on a whole-hearted fight against violent crime! With that should be a public relations aspect akin to “We will not succumb to violent elements in our society. Our lifestyles and our resolve to go out and improve our economy will not falter.” This has been the spirit in the UK since World War 2, it is the spirit now, and it is a spirit that exudes a positive perception in a society!

Ntheye Lungu.