|
Decrease in murder, rape - cops
06/12/2007 18:02 - (SA)
Pretoria - Murder, rape, attempted murder, assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm, common assault, aggravated robbery and common robbery decreased between April and September, police announced in Pretoria on Thursday.
Murder went down 6.6%, rape 3.6%, attempted murder 7.6%, assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm 2.8%, common assault 5.1 percent, aggravated robbery 9.7% and common robbery 12.3%.
The only contact crime that had increased was indecent assault, which went up 3.5%, an rise attributed to increased reporting of the crime.
House robbery, business robbery and truck hijacking increased between April and September this year, police said.
House robbery went up seven percent, business robbery 29.3%, and truck hijacking 53.3%.
There were 6 711 house robberies in the six months from April to September, up from 6 271 over the same period last year, the police said.
Most were in the Free State, Eastern Cape and Mpumalanga, with the least in the Northern Cape and Gauteng.
It seemed some of the operations and initiatives taken in Gauteng and certain other provinces were starting to pay off, said police crime information management head Dr Chris de Kock.
In its report on the latest trends, police said house robbers operated mainly in small groups, usually struck at night and normally held up their victims with firearms.
In most cases, their first contact with their victims was in their homes after they had gained forced entry.
The items most frequently taken were: cellphones, money, dvd players, clothes, jewellery, televisions, and sound systems, followed by vehicles.
Crime increased in all provinces, but mainly in Limpopo, where it went up 190.7%, from 43 cases to 125 cases.
The increase was the lowest in Gauteng, at 2.6%, where the number of business robberies went up from 3 433 cases in 2006 to 4 438 in the same six months of this year.
|
News
