Rethinking crime and punishment, especially with regard to youth, is a priority for South Africa; a country with high crime rates, recidivism and an overburdened criminal justice system. The present punitive and retributive system often only exacerbates many underlying causes of crime and violence, especially in young people. The failure of the present system suggests that the time is right for a paradigm

In view of reports in the media on the spate of crimes plaguing South African universities, a qualitative study was conducted regarding the experience of crime by students from one urban-based university. The research formed part of a group project in which fourth-year social work students each conducted five interviews with students who were not their friends. Consistent with routine activity theory

On 19 June 2019, one day before World Refugee Day, the Western Cape High Court handed down judgment in a case brought by the University of Cape Town’s Refugee Rights Unit on behalf of the Scalabrini Centre of Cape Town, which sought to improve the lives of thousands of asylum-seeking families across South Africa. The order, which was made after successful negotiations with the Department of Home Affairs

Criminological discourses among people of African descent globally continue to suffer from a crisis of application of Western explanatory frameworks with gross implications on the development of African centered epistemologies and frameworks. One of the central arguments in this paper is that criminological discourses, specifically on class-specific, racialized-gendered identities of incarcerated women

By virtue of state sovereignty, states exercise authority over all persons and things within their territories. This includes individuals suspected of committing or charged with crimes in foreign states. International law generally imposes no obligation to surrender individuals suspected of or charged with committing crimes in foreign states. Fugitives may only be returned when an agreement exists

Driving under the influence is a major threat to road safety in South Africa. Various psychoactive substances (both licit and illicit) have the potential to adversely affect driving performance and increase the probability of a road traffic accident. While it is common practice in South Africa to test drivers for alcohol levels, testing for additional impairing substances (including drugs of abuse)

Marie Rosenkrantz Lindegaard, Surviving gangs, violence and racism in Cape Town: Ghetto Chameleons, Abingdon: Routledge Advances in Ethnography, 2017 ISBN: 978-0-415-81891-9 (hbk) ISBN: 978-0-203-57895-7 (ebk)

In South Africa, media and scholarly research has increasingly drawn into question the correctness of police responses to post-1994 popular protest. Assessments of democratic policing, moreover, emphasise the critical role of the police in democratic development. Existing accounts of protest, however, seldom draw upon the assessments of individual police members. In an attempt to understand the challenges

This article is based on media content analysis of more than 230 newspaper articles written on the Lindela Repatriation Centre from its establishment in 1996 to 2014. This centre is South Africa’s only holding facility for undocumented migrants1 awaiting repatriation, and the data revealed that it is a hub of human rights violations. The article juxtaposes the South African Bill of Rights, which supposedly

The legal system in South Africa holds a legitimate and authoritative position in the country’s constitutional democracy and political order, despite the commonplace experiences of injustice that take place at the hands of the criminal justice system. This article looks at how the legal consciousness of community activists, student activists and migrants is shaped by experiences of arrest and detention

With the revelations by Bosasa officials at the State Capture Enquiry, held in early 2019, laying bare the corrupt links between prisons, detention centres and border control, and high ranking political and government officials, the time is ripe to excavate the capitalist interests that fuel incarceration in this country. How did the prison industrial complex overtake the lofty principles that ushered

Arrestees have the right to apply for bail and to be released pending their trial, where circumstances require it. There is a practice of requiring people to verify their addresses prior to bail being granted, and this is implemented in various ways by different magistrates’ courts; from a magistrate refusing to hear a bail application until there is a verified address, to a magistrate hearing the

Prisons have been a major player in all countries with a history of tyrannical regimes, as people who attempted to resist repression frequently found themselves detained in prisons. Many countries have adopted democratic government, underscored by equality of all people before the law. Many states – South Africa among them – continue to make reforms to address these past injustices, and, as part of

The issue of admission of evidence obtained through human rights violations is central to a criminal justice system as a mechanism through which to prevent overzealous prosecution by the state and ensure protection of human rights. As such, any court that deals with criminal cases has to evaluate evidence before it is admitted. This article argues that the Traditional Courts Bill (TCB)1 does not provide

This article considers whether evidence of sexual grooming influences decisions by South African courts when passing sentence on offenders who have been found guilty of sexual assault or rape of children. By analysing judicial decisions, the article considers three themes – the lack of violence, the apparent consent of a child under 12, and the appropriateness of correctional supervision. The article

Recent local and global developments have turned the spotlight on the role of law in addressing sexual harassment in the workplace. Almost four decades after feminist legal scholars pushed for law that recognises that sexual harassment constitutes a form of discrimination that is legally actionable, it is important to take stock of the success and limits of the law. In a context where the law is increasingly

This article is concerned with the events of 16 August 2012 at the Lonmin Marikana mine in the North West province, when members of the South African Police Service killed 34 people, most of whom were striking mineworkers. These killings, now widely referred to as the Marikana massacre, are regarded not only as a tragedy but also as an event of great significance in South Africa’s contemporary history

There is public concern about the violent nature of crime in South Africa and the continuously increasing levels of crime, both of which place a huge burden on the resources of the criminal justice system. ‘Bank associated robbery’ is a bank-related robbery (or attempted robbery) of cash, committed against a bank client while en route to or from a bank or ATM. Although this phenomenon is relatively

High levels of socio-economic dissatisfaction, persistent service delivery issues and increased political contestation necessitate closer monitoring of protest action. This article focuses on where and why protests happen. The findings draw on data collected by the Institute for Security Studies through its Protest and Public Violence Monitor (PPVM). Unlike other reporting systems, which tend to focus

As anyone with empirical fieldwork experience knows, even best laid data collection plans rarely go off without a hitch. There is often rich learning from these challenges, although we seldom reflect on them in the literature. This interview asks UCT’s Safety and Violence Initiative (SaVI) Director, Guy Lamb, and Study Coordinator Ncedo Ntsasa Mnquibisa about their experiences carrying out the Gugulethu

The prospect that research can improve the impact of policing operations and internal organisational efficiencies has been a source of promise and frustration for decades.  It may seem obvious to many that research should be able to assist with better policing strategies and tactics by providing evidence as to what does or does not work. Realizing this potential, however, it is not straightforward

Review of: Andrew Faull, Police Work and Identity: A South African Ethnography, Abingdon, Routledge, 2018 ISBN: 978-1-138-23329-4 Sindiso Mnisi Weeks, Access to Justice and Human Security: Cultural Contradictions in Rural South Africa, Abingdon, Routledge, 2018 ISBN: 978-1-138-57860-9

In 2013 the Western Cape legislature passed the Western Cape Community Safety Act (WCCSA) to improve monitoring of and oversight over the police. One creation of the WCCSA is the Western Cape Police Ombudsman, which became operational in 2015. This article reviews its history and context, as well as results from its first year. The Police Ombudsman, the only one in the country, must be seen as one

Few Capetonians would argue against the claim that the City has been rocked by the current water crisis that many have dubbed the most severe in modern history. Discussions about water saving techniques, membership of the ‘Water Warriors’ club, dinner party comparisons of family daily usage figures, discussion of toilet habits (to flush or not to flush?) and frenzied buying to secure 25-litre water

Tanzania is one of the jurisdictions in Africa that follow an adversarial criminal justice system. Despite a number of problems associated with the fact that the criminal justice system overutilises imprisonment, there is still a lack of diversionary measures to complement the system. This article investigates restorative justice as a complementary system to the Tanzanian criminal justice system, arguing

Over the past two centuries, the police have perpetrated massacres in response to protest action in numerous countries. Available scholarly literature has typically focused on the circumstances that contributed to such mass killings, but rarely has there been consideration of the impact that such massacres subsequently may have had on the police organisation. Hence, this article will explore the relationship

Judgment in the long-awaited SJC10 case was handed down on 24 January 2018. This case marks a victory for the collective bane on civil society – that of the criminalisation of a convener of a protest for the failure to provide notice. It goes a long way to opening the space for more serious engagement on the legitimacy of the Regulation of Gatherings Act 1993 and its possible reformulation to give

This article reports on the frequency and turmoil of South Africa’s community protests from 2005 to 2017, which, taken together, have been called a ‘rebellion’. It defines ‘community protest’ as protests in which collective demands are raised by a geographically defined and identified ‘community’ that frames its demands in support/and or defence of that community. It distinguishes between ‘violence’

This issue of South African Crime Quarterly is a special issue focusing on protest. It is guest edited by Kelley Moult of the Centre for Law and Society at the University of Cape Town.

The Regulation of Gatherings Act (RGA) places strict guidelines on how to exercise the right to protest, with particular emphasis on the submission of a notice of gathering to the responsible person within a municipality in terms of sections 2(4) and 3 of the Act. However, municipalities do not proactively make the notice of gathering templates available for public use (or may not have these at all)

South Africa has seen a groundswell of protests in the past few years. The number of arrests during protest action has likewise increased. In June 2017 the Social Justice Coalition (SJC) challenged the constitutionality of the Regulation of Gatherings Act 205 of 1993 in the Western Cape High Court. This was an appeal from the magistrates’ court in which 21 members of the SJC were convicted of contravening

The policing response to rising protest action in the country has received increased attention in the last decade. This is particularly owing to concerns over confrontations during which protesters have been arrested, injured and in some instances killed by the police. Despite the criticism voiced by various stakeholders about the manner in which the police manage crowd gatherings, relatively little

In recent years schools have borne the brunt of protestors’ frustrations about the lack of access to services in South Africa. This article explores the current tensions between the constitutionally guaranteed rights to “assemble peacefully and unarmed” (the right to protest) on the one hand, and the right to basic education, on the other. The article seeks to establish whether the exercise of the

Despite the historical and ongoing importance of protest as a vehicle for children to express themselves, current laws fail to protect and enable children’s participation in protest. More than two decades after the formal end of apartheid, a child may be subject to criminal processes for convening a peaceful, unarmed protest. This article highlights the importance of the right to protest for children

Frequent protests, arising from a diversity of motivations, are a feature of the South African landscape. Despite the right to protest being entrenched in section 17 of the Constitution, it is under threat, and communities seeking to protest increasingly risk criminalisation. This article identifies some of the emerging themes in the protest landscape and the way the right to protest is being suppressed

Section 17 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 enshrines the right to assemble, peacefully and unarmed, and the Regulation of Gatherings Act 205 of 1993 enables the exercise of this right peacefully and with due regard to the rights of others. The recent student protests across South Africa have occasioned litigation seeking to interdict protest action, which the universities

Review of: Jane Duncan, The rise of the securocrats, Johannesburg, Jacana Media, 2014 (ISBN-10: 1431410756) Jane Duncan, Protest nation: The right to protest in South Africa, Pietermaritzburg, University of KwaZulu-Natal Press, 2016 (ISBN-10: 186914323X)

This article focuses on providing new insights into the nature of public opinion about protest action in South Africa. Since the mid-2000s the country has experienced one of the world’s highest levels of popular protest and strike action, combined with the recent resurgence of an active student protest movement. Sociological research into these protests has suggested that they represent distinct phenomena

The South African Police Service (SAPS) is finding it increasingly difficult to protect victims from the scourge of commercial crime which threatens the economy, corrodes scarce and valuable resources, and inhibits growth and development. Official statistics from the SAPS show that the annual detection rate in respect of reported fraud cases was 35.77% in 2014/15 and 34.08% in 2015/16. Although the

South African courts, in at least two reported cases, have dealt with restorative justice (RJ) in sentencing offenders (i.e. State v. Thabethe (Thabethe case); State v. Seedat (Seedat case)). In both of these cases, the Supreme Court of Appeal rejected the notion of RJ in its entirety, with the presiding judges ‘[cautioning] seriously against the use of restorative justice as a sentence for serious

A Design Basis Threat was developed which was based on the threat the facility was exposed to in terms of its assets including the radioactive source. The purpose of this was to serve as a tool providing a common basis for planning for physical protection system by the operator and approval of its physical protection plan by the competent authority for nuclear security. The DBT assessment methodology

It is fitting that the first article in this issue of South African Crime Quarterly (SACQ) speaks to the South African Police Service’s tackling of commercial crime. It is increasingly clear that corporate–political collusion poses a serious threat to South Africa’s democratic gains. In recent months journalists have started to pick through a trove of emails released in June, known as the #GuptaLeaks

Section 36 of the Correctional Services Act describes the purpose of imprisonment as “enabling the sentenced prisoner to lead a socially responsible and crime-free life in the future.” But interviews with 48 young ex-prisoners in Gugulethu revealed a stark discrepancy between rhetoric and reality. Analysis outlined obstacles to integration, both psycho-social and material in nature, which community-level

There is a need for different stakeholders to work together to help the police combat crime in Gauteng, South Africa. Private security officers are usually well positioned to help combat crime because they can witness crime in areas where they are posted or are patrolling as response officers. Private security officers protect organisations (public and private) or individuals who are their paying clients

Despite being recognised as a significant contributor in the South African economy, the mining industry is riddled with illegal mining activities. Though it remains difficult to precisely measure the extent of the activities in financial terms, it is estimated that more than R72 Billion have been lost. Lack of research on illegal mining partly compounds the problem. In view of this knowledge-gap, this

Notwithstanding the adoption of various anti-poaching strategies, rhino and elephant poaching levels are increasingly growing in Southern African. To protect wildlife, the government of Botswana has devised and implemented controversial ‘shoot to kill’ policy against poachers. This strategy appears to be working in reducing poaching which is thought to be ‘virtually non-existent’ in Botswana. Thus

The aim of this paper is to discuss the ways in which collaboration and a coordinated approach to dealing with criminal groups involved in environmental crime can be established and bolstered. The paper begins by examining the challenges associated with organised criminal networks and transnational crimes for environmental law enforcement agencies. Such analyses continually highlight several factors:

Once considered peripheral and a green matter, wildlife crimes have moved up global security and policy agendas. The UN General Assembly, for example, adopted two resolutions to tackle wildlife crimes in 2015 and 2016. Meanwhile the South Africa and the Southern African Development (SADC) have declared wildlife trafficking a priority crime issue. Rhino poaching, in particular, has captured the attention

The recent and rapid increase in wildlife crime not only threatens the survival of significant populations of endangered species in South Africa, but also threatens regional security, the sustainability of the tourism sector and social stability of local communities. Many interventions and actions in addressing wildlife crime fail to achieve sustained impact mainly due to the complexity of the problem

In acknowledgement that the largely (para)militarized approach to anti-poaching has its limitations, alternative approaches to conservation law enforcement are being sought. One alternative focuses on including people from local communities in anti-poaching, what we call inclusive anti-poaching. Using a case study of a community scout programme from southern Mozambique, located adjacent South Africa’s

Crimes against wildlife have come to the fore in South Africa in the past decade – largely due to the dramatic escalation of rhino poaching. As a major custodian of iconic species such as the Big Five, South Africa is at the core of the illicit wildlife economy. Since the country is reliant on wildlife tourism for economic development, poaching brings serious financial consequences. These negative

This article aims at identifying how the global response to poaching can be improved and what role South Africa might play in it. To do so, we examine the emerging global wildlife crime regime and the challenges it faces. To offer an understanding of how governance could be improved, we ask how the success in curbing another transnational crime can serve as an example of international coordination

In 1998, in an attempt to undo the long-standing neglect of domestic violence, legislators placed a set of duties on the police in relation to domestic violence and coupled these with a unique system of accountability relations and practices. This articles examines the effect of these in three ways:review both of complaints of misconduct, as well as the station audits conducted in terms of the Domestic

Section 35 of the Constitution protects an accused’s right to a fair trial. In order for an accused to make a substantial defence, both his physical and his mental presence is required in court. The incapacity of an accused person to understand criminal proceedings in a court will affect his right to a fair trial. Section 77 of the Criminal Procedure Act 51 of 1977 deals with the treatment of persons who

In 1998, in an attempt to undo the long-standing neglect of domestic violence, legislators placed a set of duties on the police in relation to domestic violence, and coupled these with a unique system of accountability relations and practices. This article examines the effect of these in three ways: a review, both of complaints of misconduct and of the station audits conducted in terms of the Domestic

Why do ‘crime bosses’ settle in one place and not another? It is an intriguing and under researched question on which little has been written. In South Africa a cluster of individuals associated with organised crime moved into, or were associated with, a particular suburb: Bedfordview, south-east of Johannesburg. The most notorious was Radovan Krejcir, but he himself plugged into an established network

In 2016 the South African Police Service announced that it was going ‘Back-to-Basics’. To lead this programme, it established a new Management Interventions competency, headed by Lt Gen. Gary Kruser. In February 2017 Dr Johan Burger (ISS) sat down with Kruser to learn more about the new competency.

In February this year, Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) released the findings of the 2015/16 Victims of Crime Survey, and announced that it would release the 2016/17 results in November. Victim surveys, though not without fault, capture valuable data relating to crime, justice and safety, that is not typically collected by criminal justice agencies. Much of their value lies in their ability to identify

Violence has been recognised officially as a global health issue, with the World Health Organization (WHO) reporting that 1.6 million people die annually from violence. South Africa’s injury burden is very high, particularly for homicide, which is six times the global average. The idea of an ‘observatory’ has expanded recently, from its origins in astronomy to that of specialised informational repositories

Despite its title, this book does not look exclusively at the massacre that occurred at Marikana on 16 August 2012, when South African police officers shot and killed 34 striking mineworkers and wounded 78 others. Rather, it places that event in the context of a longer, larger struggle for dignity and economic freedom by the working class in South Africa. The authors did not do this to trivialise this