South African Crime Quarterly 25

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

As this edition of South African Crime Quarterly was about to go to print the Child Justice Bill was entering the final stages before being passed into law. On 5 September the National Council of Provinces passed the Bill after the Select Committee on Justice and Security Affairs had made minor technical changes to it. It will now be returned to the Portfolio Committee on Justice and Constitutional Affairs for approval before being sent to President Mbeki for signature.

Veterans of the Child Justice Bill process, Ann Skelton and Jacqui Gallinetti, provide an overview of the process and commentary on the role of civil society in determining the content and philosophy of the Bill. Meanwhile, Thulane Gxubane takes a sobering look at some of the real problems of implementation from the point of view of probation officers and laments the fact that social workers have not played an active role in policy formation, Lukas Muntingh reports on the actions taken by DCS to reduce corruption throughout the prison system, particularly the service agreement that was entered into with the Special Investigation Unit, and points to the structural difficulties associated with putting an end to corruption in a system that lends itself to the practice, Noel Stott and Ben Coetzee contribute an article to this edition that reports on the implementation of firearms control policies by the SAPS, in particular the destruction of confiscated firearms and finally Bilkis Omar addresses psychologically motivated crimes by looking into the work of the SAPS Investigative Psychology Unit.