‘Stats on gender-based crime need deeper analysis for change’

Protesters hold placards during a march against GBV.

2 minutes

Gender specialist on violence against women, Lisa Vetten, says that crime statistics are not utilised optimally to bring about a positive change in communities.

She was reacting after Police Minister Senzo Mchunu released crime statistics for the second quarter yesterday.

The statistics show that South Africa’s murder rate dropped by 5.8% in the second quarter, sexual offences by 2.5%, robbery with aggravating circumstances by 8.8% and rape by 3.1%.

Vetten says that a deeper look into the statistics can provide insight.

“What I think we really need to do, is use police statistics so much better than we currently do. At this point, we just use them as a basis whether or not to shout at the police for an increase or to congratulate them for a decrease. That’s not helpful – what we need to be doing, is looking at those patterns over a five to 10-year period to see what’s going on and to, I think, look at them at a more granular detail.”

“I use rape for example, one of the things that the police do is break down rape statistics in South Africa, in terms of the top 20 or 30 stations and you can see some really interesting fluctuations going on there over a period of a year,” adds Vetten.