Criminals target women and children

09 September 2011 - 02:35 By CHARL DU PLESSIS
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Image: Gallo Images/Thinkstock

Though South Africa's overall crime statistics have decreased for the second consecutive year, women and children are still among the hardest hit by violent crime.

While violence against women and children has been declared a priority by the police, statistics show that there was a 5.6% increase in the number of women murdered last year.

The number of murders decreased by 5.3% - from 16834 in 2009-2010 to 15940 in 2010-2011 - but 2594 women were murdered in 2010-2011, up from 2457 the year before.

The national crime statistics, released by Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa in Pretoria yesterday, also showed that, though reported sexual offences had decreased by 3.1%, the number of rape cases had increased from 55097 last year to 56272 cases this year.

Of a total 66196 sexual offences, police recorded 35820 against women (54% of the total) and 28128 (42%) against children.

Cases of sexual offences involving children increased by 711 to 28128 this year.

The statistics, which this year for the first time included separate rape figures, have confirmed what many civil society organisations have feared - that the rape of women and children makes up a large percentage of reported sexual offences.

Though the total number of sexual offences has declined since 2007, this has obscured the fact that the number of rape cases has been increasing since that year.

Police this year categorised rape separately for the first time since the Sexual Offences Act came into force in 2007.

This had been promised by the police in the department's annual report last year. The change was made so that trends in sexual offences involving women and children could be better tracked.

The act posed a challenge to the police because it combined 59 crimes under the blanket term "sexual offences".

Sexual offences, which police have until now reported separately, include crimes such as public indecency, keeping a brothel and exposing a child to pornography.

Domestic violence against women is another crime not reported separately by the police, with most of these offences being recorded as assault or assault with intention to do grievous bodily harm (down by 4.5% and 2.4% respectively).

Mthethwa said the number of "reported cases of rape still remains unacceptably high".

He said the police were hoping to fight rape with the reintroduction of the family violence, child protection and sexual offences units, disbanded by disgraced national police commissioner Jackie Selebi in 2006.

"But the reality is that rape, based on international trends, is often under-reported. But, as we continue to improve our criminal justice system, we could see more reporting by victims," said Mthethwa.

Mthethwa said that even family members of victims sometimes tried to convince them not to report the crime so as not to "throw away the family name".

Mthethwa said the eradication of violence against women and children was a priority but society needed a culture in which "everyone in society would not be ashamed to report even those they know".

But Lizette Schoombie, a director at Teddy Bear Clinic, said the latest statistics did not reflect the true crime situation.

"[Fewer] cases are being prosecuted. A lot of cases are being postponed and because police only reflect on reported cases, it does not show the true extent of what's happening on the ground," said Schoombie.

She said the Teddy Bear Clinic attended to about 3 000 child-abuse cases a year, including rape and indecent assault, and that these cases sometimes just "vanish".

Schoombie said that, only last week, a 13-year-old from Carletonville, on the West Rand, came face-to-face with her alleged rapist for the fourth time.

Schoombie said the disbanding of the child, family violence and protection units had had an effect on the incidence of violence.

"Ordinary police officers are not properly trained. That puts us back 10 to 15 years in terms of successful rape prosecutions," said Schoombie. - Additional reporting by Chandré Prince

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