Understanding the root causes of crime

1
Understanding the root causes of crime violence
in SA Links between poverty crime

• Antoinette Louw
• Institute for Security Studies

2
Approach to the question

• Factors associated with crime rather than
  causes
• Studies on links between poverty, income
  inequality and crime are not conclusive
• Methodological statistical problems in
  measuring crime poverty inequality
• Especially in developing countries

3
Briefly, what do available statistics suggest?

• Poorest nations communities do not necessarily
  have highest crime levels
• Inequality is better correlated with crime than
  poverty
• Different types of crime may be better linked to
  different factors

4
What do provincial indicators in SA show?

• Would expect poor provinces and those with
  biggest gap between rich and poor to have highest
  crime rates, but
• opposite is true
• not much difference between property violent
  crime
• Unemployment crime trends also unexpected
• lowest unemployment in W Cape the most crime
  ridden province highest unemployment in E Cape
  Limpopo the lowest crime provinces

5
Crime and unemployment
Crime and unemployed per province
6
Crime violence are about much more than poverty

• Contrary to popular wisdom, unemployment does not
  cause crime
• People commit crime for a wide range of reasons
   poverty alleviation wealth redistribution
  will help but there are many other problems that
  also need attention
• This is supported by some public perception data
  by what we know about motivations for crime,
  and contributory factors

7
What do South Africans think motivates criminals?
ISS national victim survey 2003
8
Range of possible motivations for committing crime

• Acquisitive (redistributive) crime by the poor,
  such as stealing to feed a family
• Acquisitive (alternative employment) crime by the
  poor (making an income from crime)
• Acquisitive (greed motivated) organised crime
• Acquisitive (greed motivated) individual crime,
  such as fraud
• Instrumental expressive violence in acquisitive
  crime, such as robbery
• Instrumental violence in power-related crime
  (including political violence, witchcraft
  killings, etc.)
• Expressive domestic and gender-based violence
• Expressive public violence (including hate crime)
  
• Rites of passage risk taking crime violence,
  especially among youth
• Cyclical (vindictive) community violence
• Socio-pathological violence, such as baby rapes
• Crime related to the mental illness of the
  offender
• Social order crime

9
Factors contributing to crime violence
Socio-economic circumstances
Attitudes to experiences of crime/violence
Facilitating factors
Weak regulatory systems

• Large of young men in population
• Rapid, unplanned urbanisation
• Poverty, joblessness, inequality
• Poor housing
• Dysfunctional families, schools
• Absence of childcare, after school care
  recreational facilities
• Weak social security systems

• Culture of violence, especially post-conflict
• Early experiences of violence
• Acceptance or normalisation of crime
  violence
• Poor anger conflict management skills
• Diminished status of women children
• Feelings of disillusionment, disempowerment
  social exclusion especially of youth

• Alcohol
• Drugs
• Gangs
• Firearms
• Poor urban design

• CJS
• Border control immigration policy
• Vehicle licensing systems
• Taxi regulation
• By-law enforcement
• Schooling system

10
Thank you

• Institute for Security Studies
• http//www.issafrica.org
• alouw_at_issafrica.org