A community participation approach for the prevention of violent crime in the Western Cape

Abstract

South Africa’s crime rate is amongst the highest in the world, with the violent crime rate as a major contributor. These high levels of violent crimes threaten the social, economic, and political gains made since the dawn of democracy in the country. Evidence indicates that the South African Police (SAPS) and other law enforcement agencies are ineffective in pre-venting violent crime. Amongst the reasons for the failure is the inability to address the root causes of violent crime, including social and environmental issues such as alcohol abuse, unemployment, gang membership and the design of suburbs. According to the 2017/18 crime statistics, the Western Cape reported the highest number (3 729) of murders in the entire country. The city of Cape Town hosted four of the top ten stations for the most reported violent crimes in the country, namely Nyanga (2), Mitchells Plain (3), Khayelitsha (6) and Delft (10). These statistics lead to Cape Town being identified as the most dangerous city in the country. SAPS’ response to violent crime has been varied, and, in some cases, limited success was achieved across the country. The overall performance of the SAPS does not necessarily reflect the levels of resources and commitment invested over the past years. Community Policing Forums (CPFs) are constitutionally mandated to support policing efforts through community policing. They could thus participate in preventing violent crime by fo-cusing on the root causes of this violent crime. The core objective of this study was to determine to what extent the CPFs of Nyanga and Mitchell’s Plain fulfil their mandate in participating in the prevention of violent crime in their respective geographical area and to present a community participation approach to enhance their participation in the prevention of violent crime. Data were collected through a mixed approach of close-end questionnaires and semi-structured interviews among members of both CPFs and experts in crime prevention and violent crime. It was found in this study that the CPFs of Nyanga and Mitchells Plain are involved in programmes and projects for the prevention of violent crime. It was also found that the current institutional capacity of both CPFs needs to be improved to support their participation in the prevention of violent crime. The study further found that there is enough legislation and policies in place that allow for community participation in the prevention of violent crime. The ultimate finding of the study is that the elements of a community participation approach for the prevention of violent crime, namely community policing, social crime prevention, the social-ecological model, ev-idence-based policing, and a theory of change, are supported by the respondents and could enhance the institutional capacity of the CPFs. This study concludes by recommending an evidence-based social crime prevention ap-proach for counteracting violent crime in the city of Cape Town. This approach aims to contribute scientifically to the body of knowledge in the fields of community policing and social crime prevention.