Browsing by Subject "Crime"

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
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    Open Access
    An exploratory study on the experiences of female youth victims of crime during load shedding in Site C, Khayelitsha
    (2025) Dike, Megan; Kinnes, Irvin; Mguzulwa, Sisanda
    Load shedding has become a common problem in South Africa, resulting in daily disruptions affecting every sector of life. Load shedding is a planned and temporary disruption of energy supply to specific areas. The present study explored the experiences of crime of female youth during load shedding at night in Site C, Khayelitsha. While there is extensive literature on the impact of load shedding on crime, no attention has been given to its impact on crime against female youth in Site C, Khayelitsha. The study fills this gap in the existing literature. Although males can experience crime too, the focus of this study is on the experiences of the female youth. Using a qualitative research approach, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 15 female youth residents of Site C, of which 8 out of the 15 participants directly experienced crime during load shedding and the other 7 participants had not directly experienced crime, but were witnesses of crime during load shedding. The findings of this study indicate that load shedding is associated with higher levels of robberies, with house robbery being the most common crime during load shedding. Furthermore, the research underscores the role of environmental factors in shaping crime opportunities and highlights the disproportionate impact load shedding has on the female youth. The study also emphasizes the urgent need for targeted interventions to protect vulnerable groups during load shedding.
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    Open Access
    Feathered Detectives: real-time GPS tracking of scavenging gulls pinpoints illegal waste dumping
    (Public Library of Science, 2016) Navarro, Joan; Grémillet, David; Afán, Isabel; Ramírez, Francisco; Bouten, Willem; Forero, Manuela G
    Urban waste impacts human and environmental health, and waste management has become one of the major challenges of humanity. Concurrently with new directives due to manage this human by-product, illegal dumping has become one of the most lucrative activities of organized crime. Beyond economic fraud, illegal waste disposal strongly enhances uncontrolled dissemination of human pathogens, pollutants and invasive species. Here, we demonstrate the potential of novel real-time GPS tracking of scavenging species to detect environmental crime. Specifically, we were able to detect illegal activities at an officially closed dump, which was visited recurrently by 5 of 19 GPS-tracked yellow-legged gulls ( Larus michahellis ). In comparison with conventional land-based surveys, GPS tracking allows a much wider and cost-efficient spatiotemporal coverage, even of the most hazardous sites, while GPS data accessibility through the internet enables rapid intervention. Our results suggest that multi-species guilds of feathered detectives equipped with GPS and cameras could help fight illegal dumping at continental scales. We encourage further experimental studies, to infer waste detection thresholds in gulls and other scavenging species exploiting human waste dumps.
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    Open Access
    Invisible sexual predators & their silent crimes: exploring media constructions of female teacher sex offenders
    (2025) Parfitt, Kerewin; Tame, Bianca
    The invisibility of female sex offenders (FSOs), and the trend of denialism surrounding the phenomenon, is the social issue that foregrounds this research. Sex offending continues to be regarded as male dominated and, as a result, research has focused almost exclusively on male sex offenders (MSOs). Recent literature has, however, observed that cases of FSOs are rising, globally, and being increasingly publicised in the media. Given media influences on public perceptions, policy action, and crime and penal policies, their construction of FSOs is a good starting point to understanding the ways in which a largely invisible phenomenon is made visible. This study, approached from a social constructionist framework, uses a qualitative desktop research design and conducts a thematic analysis of forty media articles, focusing on ten FSO cases, from seven countries. The findings position the media as complicit in the continued invisibility of FSOs. This complicity is evident through their conceptualisation of the offence; their denial of female agency; their focus on constructing FSOs in terms of social normality; their conception of victimisation; their contribution to the infamy of FSOs; and their acknowledgement of the dichotomy between MSOs and FSOs. The trends of trivialisation, leniency, and denial surrounding FSOs, both in the media and academic literature, need to be addressed. Thus, the overarching aim of this research is to make the ‘invisible' FSO visible. The term used for these women across existing literature is FSO. To challenge this veiling of harmful female sexual aggressors, I comment on the ways in which media constructions of FSOs align with understandings of male rapists and male paedophiles. The related observation that the labels of rapist and paedophile are seldom used for FSOs lays the groundwork for my argument towards the degendering of sex offender typologies. As it stands, FSOs are best conceptualised as invisible sexual predators committing silent crimes.
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    The state of our prisons and what this reveals about our society
    (2014) Benatar, Solomon
    In the third decade of a new South Africa (SA), major challenges are being faced in almost every aspect of life, ranging from meeting minimum daily subsistence requirements, through providing education and primary healthcare, to the functioning of our legal system and governance at local and national levels. While in this context levels of crime and corruption are reaching new heights, we should not lose sight of the need for humane and accountable approaches to crime and imprisonment. The 37th anniversary on 12 September of Steve Biko’s death under inhumane conditions and without adequate medical care in prison provides an opportunity to remember past failings and to reconsider the lessons these hold for our society.