According to the Victims of Crime Survey released by Statistics South Africa in Pretoria on Tuesday‚ households rated burglary and home robbery as the most common and most feared types of crime.
Dr Pali Lehohla‚ the Statistician-General‚ said this fear was in agreement with the actual count of households’ experience of crime‚ where burglary and home robbery also emerged as the most prevalent household crimes.
The survey also showed a decline in society’s faith in the police and courts between 2011 and 2015/16.
The results of the survey are an indictment on the police‚ showing that the level of satisfaction with police declined from an estimated 64.2% in 2011 to 58.8% in 2015/16.
Western Cape was the worst province when it comes to society’s trust in the police‚ with the level of satisfaction with the police decreasing from 71‚3% in 2011 to 57‚1% in 2015/16.
The level of despondency in society when it comes to police’s ability to combat or investigate crime is palpable from the results of the survey‚ with people believing that it was pointless to report crime as police could do nothing or they just won’t do anything about it.
