Johannesburg — MURDER rates in SA had declined 30% over the past 15 years, but this has not been reflected in the perceptions of South Africans, who feel crime levels have actually increased, the South African Institute of Race Relations said yesterday.
Researcher Kerwin Lebone said the 25965 people murdered in 1994-95 had decreased to 18148 murders in 2008-09.
This showed a decrease in the rate of murders per 100000 people, from 70 in 1994-95 to 37 in 2008-09.
Lebone said the consistent decline in the murder rate showed that the police had achieved some success. However, the improvement in the murder rate was not reflected in the perceptions of South Africans that crime levels have increased.
House robberies, which are often violent and sometimes lead to people being killed, had the biggest effect on perceptions.
"Even if the crime figures show a trend of (murders) coming down, the public's perceptions will be formed by attacks where criminals forcibly enter homes while people are in them," he said.
Aggravated robbery had increased 43% since 1994-95, Lebone said. In that year police recorded 84000 such cases and this increased to 121392 in 2008- 09. This category of crime included bank robberies, car and truck hijackings, and robberies of businesses, homes and cash-in- transit vans.
Lebone said SA's murder rate was still unacceptably high and the use of private security had increased among those who could afford it, replacing the role of the police in their communities.
A possible explanation for the perception that all crime was increasing even while there were fewer murders, was that in the short term, the change in the murder rate was minimal.
For example, the number of murders in 2008-09 decreased 1,8% from 2007-08.
There had been an increase in expenditure on police, justice and correctional services from R13,8bn in 1995-96 to R54,3bn in 2007-08.
In the 2007-08 financial year, police were allocated 67% of the expenditure on protection services.
