Crime is down - police stats

2008-06-30 12:45

Pretoria - South Africa's murder rate has decreased in the past year, with 38.6 out of every 100 000 people murdered in the period compared to 40.5 last year.

Police statistics for the period between April 2007 and March 2008 showed that 18 487 cases of murder were reported to police - the lowest figure since the turn of the century. The most cases reported were 21 533 in 2002/2003.

The decrease was not the only good news from the statistics released in Pretoria on Monday - as the country's other contact crimes have also shown a decrease.

Attempted murder was down by 7.5% with 18 795 cases being reported or a crime ratio of 39.3 incidents per 100 000 of the population, down from 42.5 incidents in 2006/2007.

Rape statistics were only presented for the nine months ending in December, since the law on rape changed in December.

During the period 36 190 rapes were recorded, or 75.6 cases per 100 000 of the population.

Assault, robbery also down

Indecent assault was slightly down to 6 763 cases reported, compared to the 6 812 cases in the previous year.

In 2007/2008, 439.1 people out of 100 000 were assaulted with the intention to do grievous bodily harm - which translated into 210 104 cases reported to police.

Common assault was down to 198 049 cases reported or 413.9 per 100 000 of the population. This showed a decrease of 6.6% compared to the previous year's figures of 210 057 cases reported.

Common robbery had a 9.5% decline, the biggest decrease in contact crimes, with 64 985 cases reported or 135.8 incidents out of 100 000 people.

Robbery with aggravating circumstance was down from 126 558 reported cases in 2006/2007 to 118 312 cases reported in 2007/2008.

- SAPA