Justice versus Retribution: Attitudes to Punishment in the Eastern Cape

An important way of measuring the impact of crime upon society is to assess the public’s attitudes to punishment.

An important way of measuring the impact of crime upon society is to assess the public’s attitudes to punishment. The results of the attitudes to punishment survey — based on 470 interviews and eleven focus group discussions, conducted in the Eastern Cape in mid-1999 — present some interesting results. While most respondents took a fairly punitive approach on the issue of punishment for criminals, responses varied considerably between urban and rural respondents, and respondents of different race groups.

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.