"The Ones in the Pile Were the Ones Going Down": The Reliability of Violent Crime Statistics
- Posted on
- In Publications, Research
- by David Bruce
In recent years there have been numerous press reports on the manipulation of crime statistics that have highlighted the existence of incentives within the SAPS not to record violent crime. This article argues that there are several peculiarities in crime statistics, and that these can be understood as linked to non-recording. This implies that current violent crime statistics cannot be relied on as an indicator of trends in violent crime.
theonesinthepile
David Bruce
David Bruce is a Johannesburg-based independent researcher and writer working in the fields of policing, crime and criminal justice. He obtained his Master's Degree Public and Development Management and Bachelor's Degree Bachelor of Arts with majors in Legal Theory and Industrial Sociology from The University of the Witwatersrand.
- Tags: Criminal Justice, Policing
