Browsing by Subject "crime"

Now showing 1 - 9 of 9
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    A Capability Approach to Examining the Effects of Actual and Anticipated Fear of Crime: Experiences and Perceptions of Black Female Youth in the Cape Flats
    (2020) Beiser, Sarina; Kubeka, Alvina
    The purpose of this study was to examine how the fear of crime affects the capabilities, perceptions and experiences of black female youth, living in the Cape Flats, Cape Town. Qualitative semi structured interviews were conducted with 18 black female participants between the ages of 18 to 30. This study used Garofalo's model of fear of crime and Amartya Sen's capability approach as theoretical frameworks. With the help of these two frameworks, the researcher sought to gauge what influence the fear of crime can have on people's lives and how crime affects young black females living in communities with high crime rates. It also showed how their life choices and opportunities are influenced by living in unsafe communities. The major challenges and problems highlighted by the participants include: Constant trauma of their daily life (leaving their houses, random shootings, unsafe public transport), mental health issues (losing friends and relatives), lack of proper police service (lack of police presence, incompetence of police, corruption), fear for family or friends, lack of trust and support systems (broken families, loss of trust, no role models, lack of social capital), lack of infrastructure (such as safe hospitals or educational challenges), the effects of gangsterism (gangs and drug wars, effects of drugs, families' or friend's involvement in gangsterism) and the lack of opportunities such as unemployment. This study showed how the peoples' capabilities have been affected by the above-mentioned issues and how the fear of crime affected their daily lives. This study also made recommendations for policy makers and social institutions on what can be done to reduce crime rates and make communities with high crime rates safer
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    Crime in the suburbs: a critical discourse analysis of how suburban residents of South Africa, and the United States talk about crime on local Facebook groups
    (2024) Maguire, Zachary; Bosch, Tanja
    This dissertation aims to explore the ways in which suburban residents of Cape Town South Africa, and New Jersey, USA use local Facebook groups to talk about crime. While these locations may have many differences, in their respective local Facebook groups they exhibit very similar fears around crime. As suburban development continues to grow in both these countries, examining the culture these spaces help shape remains a valuable project. Notably, authors such as Rachel Heiman, and Nina Eliasoph have worked to outline the ways in which suburban residents work to create and sustain their identity in an American suburban context. Nicky Falkof has worked to do the same for the South African context, showing how fear of crime is reproduced on local Facebook groups. However, this dissertation aims to take these concepts a step further through conceptualizing this culture of fear as a global phenomenon and linking together these two locations. Utilizing scholarship on colonialism, and whiteness, this dissertation will illustrate how local Facebook groups work to reinforce an existing ideological construction of suburban spaces built on colonial ideals of domesticity, and individualism. Through a critical discourse analysis of posts and comments found on local suburban groups, in New Jersey and Cape Town, I illustrate how these spaces serve as key locations for the performance of a middle-class position, where residents work to both contest and reinforce middle-class ideals, of personal responsibility, and rational discourse. All of this is then framed in an economic and social situation of increasing precarity, wherein suburbs and their residents are forced to make sense of increasingly unstable subject positions.
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    Do antisocial and prosocial traits vary across different socioeconomic status groups in a sample of South African adolescents?
    (2024) Knipe, Candice; Schrieff-Brown, Leigh
    South Africa, globally recognized for its high crime rates, prompts a nuanced exploration of the interconnections between crime, antisocial traits, and protective factors such as prosocial traits within its unique context. The current research therefore aimed to examine the prevalence of antisocial and prosocial traits in adolescents from different socioeconomic backgrounds within this context. Existing research predominantly focuses on higher income countries, leaving a notable gap in understanding within the South African low - to middle income country landscape. Despite its middle-income classification, South Africa grapples with pervasive inequality with much of the population living in poorer socioeconomic settings, emphasizing the importance of investigating the extent of both antisocial and prosocial traits across diverse socio-economic settings. The study utilized a cross-sectional and correlation design. Online self-report questionnaires were used to gather demographic and socio-economic status information, antisocial scores using the Inventory of Callous Unemotional Traits, and prosocial scores using the Prosocial Tendency Measure. The sample, comprised of South African adolescents, of which 52% were male, 45% were female, 3% were non-binary, aged 13-18 (N=44). I used multiple linear regression to analyse the collected data. The study's findings demonstrated that gender emerged as a significant predictor for both prosocial and antisocial behaviours among adolescents (ICU: p=0.03; PTM: p=0.04). However, the results did not support a significant association between socioeconomic status and these outcomes. This research contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of the factors shaping antisocial and prosocial traits, particularly during adolescence, within the South African context
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    Good news and bad: Public perceptions of crime, corruption and government
    (Academy of Science of South Africa, 2006) Mattes, Robert
    Idasa and Afrobarometer public opinion surveys conducted since 1994 reveal that levels of reported experiences with crime are unchanged over the past four years, but that public perceptions of overall safety and the performance of the police are actually improving. Of greatest concern is that the January-February 2006 survey found that almost half of all South Africans think that "all" or "most" police officials are involved in corruption. These are the highest rates recorded across ten different types of public servants. In contrast to the improving trends in public perceptions of crime, citizen views of corruption in the police (and other government institutions) are becoming worse.
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    Low cost fencing material for a pre-school in Lavender Hill
    (2011-07) Mazwai, Konke
    This project has been proposed by the UCT Knowledge Partnership Project. This institution is aimed at providing assistance to under-privileged communities in the Western Cape. A pre-school fence material which is low cost is to be investigated. The following criterions were set to be met for the material: -The material is to have no fuel usage value such as wood, which can be burnt for space heating -The material is to have no scrap metal value such as steel and wire fencing material as this easily gets stolen. -The material is not to block visibility which harbors criminal activity in the area. Fences such as concrete slabs and brick block visibility. The materials considered in this project are: -Various plastic polymer materials -Plastic Lumber composite material -Recycled Plastic -Rubber reinforced concrete Plastic lumber and recycled plastic HDPE were considered for use in the fence material. After considering the available fence components and loading on the fence, 100 x 100 mm cross section plastic lumber and recycled plastic section were chosen to be used. The fence design was based on existing patents which were modified. A design showing the meter of the fence was designed and is shown in the document.
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    Low-cost fencing for a pre-school in Lavender Hill
    (2011-07) UCT Knowledge Co-op
    This is an engineering project that focused on providing assistance to the New World Foundation's community centre in Lavender Hill in the Western Cape. This community faces many challenges from unemployment to high crime rates. The NWF pre-school faced the challenge of having their fence stolen on several occasions and therefore needed a low-cost, effective solution to this problem.
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    Low-cost fencing material for pre-school in low income area
    (2011-07) Mazwai, Konke
    Research into new material and design for a pre-school fence that doesn't get stolen, can't hurt children and does not limit visibility.
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    To prey or not to prey? Welfare and individual losses in a conflict model
    (2008) Wittenberg, M W
    We analyse a generalised form of the Hirshleifer-Skaperdas predation model. In such a model agents have a choice between productive work and appropriation. We suggest that such a model can usefully be thought of as a continuous form of the Prisoners' Dilemma. We present closed form solutions for the interior equilibria and comparative statics for all Cournot equilibria and analyse the social welfare losses arising from predation. We show that predation is minimised under two quite different regimes, one in which claiming is very ineffective and another in which one of the players becomes marginalised. The worst outcomes seem to arise when claiming is effective, but inequality in power is significant but not extreme. This, arguably, is the situation in a number of transition societies.
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    Twenty years of punishment (and democracy) in South Africa the pitfalls of governing crime through the community
    (Academy of Science of South Africa, 2014) Super, Gail
    This article examines how the ideology of 'community' is deployed to govern crime in South Africa, both by marginalised black communities and by the government. Although the turn to 'community' started under the National Party government in the late 1970s, there is no doubt that as a site, technology, discourse, ideology and form of governance, 'community' has become entrenched in the post-1994 era. Utilising empirical data drawn from ethnographic research on vigilantism in Khayelitsha, as well as archival materials in respect of ANC policies and practices before it became the governing party, I argue that rallying 'communities' around crime combatting has the potential to unleash violent technologies in the quest for 'ethics' and 'morality'. When community members unite against an outsider they are bonded for an intense moment in a way that masks the very real problems that tear the community apart. Because violent punishment is one of the consequences of the state's turn towards democratic localism, we should question the way in which the 'community' is deployed as a tool of crime prevention, and subject it to rigorous scrutiny.