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Category:
South Africa
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Insurance
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SAPS Crime
statistics for 2005/2006 released
All eight contact crimes decreased during the last financial year, that
is from 1 April 2005 to 31 March 2006, with four of the eight categories
showing significant decreases, ie Common Robbery decreased by -18.3%,
Attempted Murder by -16.6%, Common Assault by -15.6% and Assault with
Intent to Commit Grievous Bodily Harm by -9.6%. The SAPS is satisfied
that in these categories we have achieved - and even in some instances
exceeded - Government’s target of reducing serious and violent crimes by
between 7 to 10%. The decrease of -6.2% in Robbery with Aggravating
Circumstances is also encouraging and is an improvement on the previous
year’s decrease of -5.5%.
Although Murder decreased by -2.0%, Rape by -1.0% and Indecent Assault
by -3.8%, these contact crimes against the person remain a cause for
concern. Over the past eleven years, however, there has been an overall
downward trend in the murder rate.
Contact-related crimes also reflected a continuing downward trend with
Arson decreasing by -7.5% and Malicious Damage to Property decreasing by
-4.9%.
Of
the property-related crimes only Theft of Motor Vehicles and Motor
Cycles showed a marginal increase of 1.9%, with the other four
sub-categories showing a decrease - Burglary at Residential Premises
-5.5%, Burglary at Non-residential Premises -3.6%, Theft out of or from
Motor Vehicles -6.9% and Stock Theft -12.6%.
Two sub-categories of robbery with aggravating circumstances have shown
an increase and are cause for concern - Carjackings which have increased
by 3.1% from the previous financial year and Cash-in-transit Heists
which increased by 74.1%. The significant increase in CIT heists is
obviously very worrying, but it must be borne in mind that - when
working with very low figures - the percentage factor is very high. In
terms of raw figures there were 163 more incidents during the year under
review when compared with the previous year and this is a trend which is
receiving urgent attention in partnership with the South African Banking
Risk Information Centre (SABRIC).
Crimes heavily dependent on police action for detection contain crime
sub-categories which should show an increase - this is indicative that
police are carrying out their duties pro-actively - drug-related crimes
increased by 13.2% and driving under the influence increased by 9.9%,
statistics generated by police action.
Issued by SAPS Director
Sally de Beer
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