“An important way of measuring the impact of crime upon society is to assess the public’s
attitudes to punishment.The survey revealed that, on average, every third adult inhabitant of the Eastern Cape became
a victim of crime within a two-year period. Most crimes were reported to the police, but less than a third of respondents who did so were satisfied with the police’s response. While rural respondents were least likely to report crime to the police, they were twice as likely to be satisfied with the police compared to their urban counterparts. Crimes reported in rural areas were the most likely to end up in court. Rural crime victims, however, were least likely to be satisfied with the outcome of the court proceedings. There was overwhelming support for forced manual labour for convicted prisoners who had
committed serious crimes. Most respondents thought that juveniles should be treated differently and more benignly by the criminal justice system, but that corporal punishment for juveniles should be reintroduced as a punishment in law.”
