Heather Hogan
Less than half of all crimes reported result in prosecution, while three-quarters of crimes prosecuted result in a conviction.
According to the Nedcor/Institute for Security Studies Crime Index update, there are two factors by which the performance of the criminal justice system can be judged.
One is the number of cases solved sufficiently by police for prosecutors to decide to prosecute, and the other is the number of cases which go to court and result in successful prosecutions. The report found that the justice system was failing miserably in the first instance, but doing “surprisingly well” in the second.
Only 24,5% of murders, 17,7% of rapes, 17,5% of assaults with intent to do grievous bodily harm, 6,4% of housebreakings, 4,2% of robberies, 3,1% of car thefts and 2,8% of carjackings handed over for a decision to prosecute in 1998 were prosecuted.
According to the report, the number of prosecuted cases resulting in convictions was “dismally low”. Only two out of every 13 murders, one out of every 11 rapes and one out of every 53 carjackings resulted in a conviction.
The trouble seems to stem from witnesses and victims refusing to proceed with cases. This is especially common when the victim and offender know each other. Last year 53,5% of cases of assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm and 38% of rape cases were withdrawn.
In cases where police were the main witnesses, a high number of cases ended up in court, including 86% of drug offences and 88% of drunk-driving offences. More than half of those cases resulted in a conviction.
Prosecutors only take on cases where “there is a reasonable prospect of obtaining a conviction”. The report credits the three- quarter conviction rate after prosecution to this factor. About 90% of drug-related crimes, 80% of housebreakings, 75% of car thefts, 67,2% of carjackings, 63,9% of murders and 50,4% of rapes resulted in convictions.
“It is at the pre-prosecution stage where one of the criminal justice system’s main weaknesses lies,” states the report. “There is an above-average chance that accused persons will be punished for their crimes once the courts decide to prosecute them. However, for the unscrupulous crime pays, as most accused persons are never caught or prosecuted.”