PublicationsResearchTransitional Justice, Violence in Transition, Violent TrendsExplaining Endemic Violence in South AfricaThis paper demonstrates that the search for mono-causal explanations of violence in South Africa is fruitless. The convenient terms in which the violence has been labelled, by politicians and the commercial media, often does more to disguise complex causation than it does to explain it. Read More Graeme SimpsonOctober 1, 1993
PublicationsResearchCriminal Justice, Policing, Violence PreventionCommunity Safety and Community Policing: Achieving Local and National AccountabilityThis essay draws on the concept of embedded policing to argue that community safety rather than community policing must be achieved through the proliferation of civil ordering and injury prevention programmes. This should be coordinated by a Community Safety Forum within which community policing is one of the components of ordering: a Community Policing Charter is proposed, specifying police service standards and methods of implementation. Finally, it is argued that bottom-up initiatives will not succeed unless they hook into a workable national accountability system that creates "circles of power" through which individuals and communities achieve and maintain political leverage. Read More Victor Nell and Gerald WilliamsonAugust 25, 1993
PublicationsResearchCriminal Justice, PolicingThe Police-Community RelationshipThis paper analyzes police-community relations in South Africa. It focuses on the way that South Africa's political context has impacted these relations. It also looks at the ways in which the police are understood both by communities and by the police themselves, and how this impacts on expectations of the police. The paper draws on international experiences to provide recommendations for improving police-community relations. Read More Etienne MaraisAugust 4, 1993
PublicationsResearchCriminal Justice, PolicingState, Civil Society and Police Reform in South AfricaThe bulk of the police reforms introduced in the 1990-91 period in South Africa were initiated by the government or the South African Police itself. The new rhetoric of police reform, centring on the concept of "community-supported policing," continues to dominate the public debate about the transition and the longer term reform agenda. This paper examines the relationship between state and civil society in the process of police reform in the transitional period in South Africa. Read More Janine RauchAugust 2, 1993
PublicationsResearchMental Health, Transitional JusticeMental Health and Human Rights: In Search of Context, Consequence and Effective CareThis paper examines the concept of human rights in the area of mental health. It does this in four steps. Firstly, it provides a brief examination of the shift from institutionalisation to community care and the violation of human rights that occurred in the process. Secondly, it defines the concept of human rights in the field of mental health. Thirdly, it provides a discussion of the hegemonic medical approach to mental health and the undermining of human rights that followed. Finally, the paper offers a brief focus on the role of the socio-political context in the understanding and distribution of human rights. Read More Brandon Hamber and Brian RockJune 1, 1993
PublicationsResearchCriminal Justice, PolicingThe Grahamstown Police-Community Relations SurveyThis paper provides the results of a comprehensive survey on relations between police and the community in Grahamstown, as well as a series of recommendations informed by this research. The research was commissioned by the Commission on Policing in Grahamstown. Read More Janine Rauch and Graeme SimpsonApril 1, 1993
