More than 40% of households believed the level of violent and nonviolent crime had decreased in their area of residence between 2008 and 2010, according to the results of a survey released by Statistics South Africa on Thursday.
Less than 35% said crime had increased, while about a quarter of the population believed crime had stayed the same.
More than half of respondents — 53% — perceived housebreaking and burglary to be one of the most common crimes, followed by home robbery (49.7%) and pickpocketing (28.5%).
Crimes perceived to be the most feared in the householder’s area of residence were home robbery (50.4%), housebreaking (50.2%), street robbery (39.7%) and murder (34.1%).
In 2010 a third of householders (33.3%) avoided going to open spaces alone because of their fear of crime, followed by only 22.2% of respondents who would not allow their children to move around unsupervised by an older person or play freely in their area.
Only 14.7% of householders would not allow their children to walk to school alone.
Male-headed households were much more likely (54.1%) to feel safe when walking alone during the day than female-headed households (34.1%).
Households headed by white males (63.8%) tended to feel safer when walking alone during the day than males from other population groups.
More than 60% of households believed that property and violent crimes were likely to be committed by people from their area.
About 32% believed crimes were committed by people from other areas, while about 7% thought that the perpetrators of crime in their neighbourhoods were people from outside South Africa.
Fifty-seven percent of households thought criminals were motivated by real needs, rather than greed (45.9%) and non-financial motives (38.7%).
About 20% thought criminals were motivated by behavioural issues such as drug use.
About half of the households took physical measures to protect their homes, nearly a quarter took physical measures to protect their vehicles and 5.3% carried a weapon for protection.
Two thirds (66%) of households believed social and/or economic development was the more effective way of reducing crime.
Twenty one percent of households said resources should be focused on law enforcement to combat crime, and only 13% felt that resources should be allocated to the judiciary and courts to reduce crime.
The vast majority (90.5%) knew where to take a victim of crime for medical help, while only 47% knew where to take someone for counselling and 16.7% knew where to find a shelter for a victim of domestic violence or abuse.
More than 70% of households would take a victim of crime to a hospital, trauma unit, or local clinic for medical help.
Only about 3% would go to a victim empowerment centre or traditional leader. — Sapa