VZCZCXRO5294
RR RUEHDU RUEHJO
DE RUEHSA #2037/01 2811105
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 081105Z OCT 09
FM AMEMBASSY PRETORIA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 9807
INFO RUEHTN/AMCONSUL CAPE TOWN 7213
RUEHDU/AMCONSUL DURBAN 1295
RUEHJO/AMCONSUL JOHANNESBURG 9576

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 PRETORIA 002037 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL PGOV SF
SUBJECT: CRIME THAT BEGETS CRIME: YOUTH VICTIMIZATION IN 
SOUTH AFRICA 
 
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Summary 
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¶1.  On September 29 the Centre for Justice and Crime 
Prevention (CJCP) released two studies on the relation 
between South African youth and anti-social behaviors.  The 
first presents results of its 2008 survey of 12 to 
22-year-olds measuring the incidence of crime and violence 
suffered by young people, who are victimized more often than 
adults.  With violence and criminality so characteristic of 
the home, community, and school environments in which youth 
are conditioned, the result is a vicious cycle in which high 
rates of exposure lead to high incidence of offending. Septel 
will describe CJCP's further research directly linking 
victimization to perpetration of crime in South Africa, as 
well as strategies and initiatives of various NGOs to help 
communities break cycles of crime and violence.  End Summary. 
 
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Survey Overview 
--------------- 
 
¶2.  CJCP is a private think tank based in Cape Town.  Its 
2008 National Youth Lifestyle Study surveyed 4,391 South 
Africans aged 12 to 22.  The sample was representative of 
national demographics, across ages (in the 12-22 range), 
genders, and races in rural and urban areas of South Africa's 
nine provinces.  (Socio-economic level was not screened by an 
income measure but rather via a random selection of 
households within 550 areas deemed representative.)  The 2008 
study is a follow-up to analogous research conducted among 
4,409 young people in 2005.  Respondents were asked about 
their experiences in the last year related to crime; 
fighting, corporal punishment, and bullying; and alcohol, 
drugs, and weapons.  (Note: the full report is online at 
http://www.cjcp.org.za/admin/uploads/NYLS-fin al.pdf.) 
Surveys are widely considered more accurate than official 
statistics, given low levels of reporting to police, yet they 
likely still understate the more sensitive issues like rape, 
drug-taking, or criminal offending. 
 
------------------------------ 
Very Violent; Youth Hit Harder 
------------------------------ 
 
¶3.  South Africa is a notoriously violent society, and young 
people are victimized at disproportionately high rates.  The 
country's murder rate (37 per 100,000) is second highest in 
the world (after Colombia), its rape rate is the highest of 
any country not at war, and broad criminality has been ranked 
by the U.N. in the top tier of countries.  Against this 
backdrop, CJCP's 2005 study found that young people were 
subject to crime more frequently than adults -- particularly 
to violent crimes like assault and robbery.  The National 
Injury Mortality Surveillance System (NIMSS)'s latest 
mortuary data for 2007 indicates that 36 percent of 
"non-natural" deaths were due to violence, making it the lead 
cause (ahead of accidents) across the broad population.  This 
figure spikes among 15 to 24-year-olds, where 48 percent or 
roughly half of all non-natural deaths are cases of homicide. 
 (Note: comparable U.S./CDC data for 2006 attribute eight 
percent of injury deaths to homicide, with a peak of 22 
percent in the 15-24 age bracket.  End Note.) 
 
¶4.  As shown in the table below, youth victimization rates 
are higher than those of adults across a range of crimes. 
CJCP compares its own findings among youth to those of a 2007 
survey by the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) of 4,860 
persons aged 16 and over.  (CJCP asked about the prior twelve 
months; ISS probed the prior three years.)  Both CJCP and ISS 
found declines in reported incidence of most crime types 
compared to prior years, corroborating the statistics 
Qcompared to prior years, corroborating the statistics 
published by the South African Police, yet absolute levels 
remain high -- and highest among young victims. 
 
--------------------------------------------- ------------- 
Victimization Rates -- Youth vs. Adults 
--------------------------------------------- ------------- 
Crime Category      Youth (12 mos.)     Adults (36 mos.) 
--------------      ---------------     ---------------- 
 
- Theft             10.7 percent           2.1 percent 
- Assault            8.4 percent           1.3 percent 
- Housebreaking      7.6 percent           6.9 percent 
- Robbery            5.7 percent           2.1 percent 
- Sexual assault     2.1 " (reported)         N/A 
- Hijacking          1.3 percent              N/A 
 
--------------------------------------------- ------------- 
 
PRETORIA 00002037  002 OF 003 
 
 
Sources: CJCP National Youth Lifestyle Survey 2008, 
         ISS National Crime and Victimisation Survey 2007 
--------------------------------------------- ------------- 
 
¶5.  There was marked variation in crime prevalence by 
province and race.  CJCP respondents' reported incidence of 
theft was as high as 32 percent in Kwa Zulu Natal (KZN) and 
22 percent in the Western Cape -- i.e. one in three to five 
young people falling victim in the last year alone -- 
compared to just 2.2 percent in Limpopo (the province showing 
lowest levels of nearly every crime).  Assault and sexual 
assault rates were both highest in Mpumalanga (26 and 7.2 
percent of respondents) and KZN (18 and 4.7 percent).  (Note: 
only an estimated one in nine rapes are reported to police; 
it is very likely that these survey responses also reflect a 
substantial degree of under-reporting.)  Western Cape and 
Gauteng led in robbery (21 and 14 percent).  White and 
Coloured respondents reported markedly higher rates of theft 
and robbery and slightly higher rates of assault, but 
Coloureds and Blacks reported the most sexual assault (4.4 
and 3.7 percent).  In every category except hijacking 
Indians/Asians experienced the least crime. 
 
------------------------------------ 
Families: Absent or Poor Role Models 
------------------------------------ 
 
¶6.  Demographics of the survey sample provide a profile of 
respondents' home environments.  Reflecting South Africa's 
mix of fractured family structures, in which supervision and 
suitable role models may be absent, under half lived with 
both parents (40 percent), while the rest lived with a mother 
only (29 percent), grandparents (14 percent), siblings and 
other relatives (7 percent each), or father only (3 percent). 
 Eleven percent of respondents had become parents themselves, 
at an average age of 18.  A sizeable 59 percent lived in 
households of five to ten members, yet stable support of 
permanent employment was uneven: 27 percent of those 
households had two or three persons fully employed, 44 
percent had one such person, and 27 percent had no persons 
fully employed. 
 
¶7.  Violence and criminality were not uncommmon in these 
homes.  Tendencies to lose temper (53 percent) or argue a lot 
(18 percent) may be waved away as common to many families, 
but here "hitting each other" (6.5 percent in the prior year) 
was often preceded by consumption of alcohol or drugs (51 
percent), included the use of weapons (32 percent), and 
caused injuries serious enough to require medical treatment 
(34 percent).  One in six had a family member who had been in 
jail, and among Coloured respondents this was nearly one in 
three (30 percent).  One in twenty reported a family member 
who had used hard drugs (not marijuana) and/or dealt drugs 
(of any kind) in the last year.  In the Western Cape that 
measure was twice the national average, with a whopping 9.0 
percent reporting hard drug use in the family and 2.8 percent 
family drug dealing. 
 
-------------------------------- 
Communities: Drugs, Weapons Rife 
-------------------------------- 
 
¶8.  Crime was more characteristic at the community level, 
with a potent influence on impressionable youth.  More than 
14 percent knew drug dealers, including the youngest aged 
12-14 (10.3 percent).  A third of respondents knew persons 
who made a living from crime, a figure that rose to half in 
Mpumalanga.  Half of those over 20 years old knew someone who 
had been in jail.  Alcohol was considered easy to access (by 
73 percent), followed by marijuana (36 percent), 
crack/ecstasy (9.1 percent), and methamphetamine aka "tik" 
Qcrack/ecstasy (9.1 percent), and methamphetamine aka "tik" 
(4.7 percent).  Crack and tik access was highly concentrated 
in the Western Cape, where 27 and 18 percent of respondents 
found them easy to get.  Over half the sample felt it was 
easy to obtain knives and other such weapons, while 6.3 
percent felt they could easily get ahold of a gun.  Drugs and 
weapon access were strongly correlated: where one was easy to 
get, so was the other.  Half of respondents had witnessed 
violent incidents in their communities over the prior year; 
this rose to two thirds within Coloured communities, which 
are plagued by violent gangs. 
 
---------------------------- 
Schools: Lessons in Violence 
---------------------------- 
 
¶9.  For many young South Africans, school is a threatening 
environment not conducive to learning.  Of respondents still 
in school, about a third were afraid of traveling to school 
(14 percent), of being at school (10.2 percent), or of 
 
PRETORIA 00002037  003 OF 003 
 
 
particular places at school such as toilets or open fields 
(9.9 percent).  Verbal bullying was the most common form of 
abuse reported (29 percent), but one in eight had been 
threatened with bodily harm in the last year.  In 2006 the 
South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) held public 
hearings on violence in schools, responding to a wide outcry 
over the issue.  Physical aggression was in fact a behavior 
learned from teachers: more than half of the students had 
experienced hitting, caning, or spanking by teachers despite 
the banning of corporal punishment by South African law.  A 
majority of students in the Eastern Cape (77 percent) and 
rural areas (64 percent), and a nearly equal share of girls 
as boys, were still being disciplined in this way. 
 
------------------ 
Breaking the Cycle 
------------------ 
 
¶10.  Septel will move from problems to possible solutions. 
After presenting statistical correlations between youth 
victimization and perpetration of crime in South Africa 
established by the CJCP survey, septel will consider emerging 
strategies and initiatives of civil society organizations to 
help communities break cycles of crime and violence. 
LA LIME