South African Crime Quarterly 20

Individual articles are hosted on the Academy of Science of South Africa's Open Access Journals system. To access individual articles for this edition, click here

The findings of the latest Markinor opinion poll on government performance indicate that two thirds of all South Africans believe that government’s ability to fight crime is at its lowest level since 2003 - despite the fact that official crime statistics are going down, Mari Harris argues that it will require a huge concerted and joint effort by government and the public to change the perception of South Africa as one of the crime hot spots of the world.

Cheryl Goodenough reflects the debate around the potential for the private security industry to become proactive, considering some of the issues that would need to be addressed if the industry were to be more proactive in combating crime.

Michael Tonry asses the impact of sentencing policy on levels of crime, proposing that South Africa can learn from the experiences of other countries that have re-organised their sentencing systems in recent decades.

On 30 May 2007 the Criminal Law Amendment Bill (15 of 2007) was tabled in Parliament, proposing amendments to what has become known as the ‘minimum sentences’ legislation. The proposed amendments herald another chapter in the prison overcrowding debate in South Africa and will focus attention on the impact of sentencing on the size of the prison population, Chris Giffard and Lukas Muntingh examine the impact.

Finally Dr. Stefanie Roehrs describes the development and content of the provisions on compulsory HIV testing and examines their practical utility against the background of the alleged offender’s constitutional rights. It is argued that these provisions are unlikely to provide the relief sought by victims, and may result in an unconstitutional limitation of an accused’s right to privacy.