South Africa’s latest crime st

South Africa’s latest crime stats have been released – here are the grim numbers

The latest South African crime stats have been released to the public and they make for pretty grim reading.

South Africa’s latest crime st

17 805 people killed in South Africa between 1 April 2014 and 21 March 2015
The murder rate has risen by 4.6%, meaning 782 more murders than the previous year
49 murders were committed by children
884 murders were committed by youths aged 18 to 25
3.2 percent is the rate with which attempted murders have risen
0.9 percent is the rate with which “contact crimes” (murder, assault and robbery with aggravating circumstances) have risen
14.2 percent increase in carjackings
5.54 percent decrease in sexual crimes
5.2 percent increase in house robbery
8.5 percent increase in aggravated robbery
2.7 percent increase in common robbery
1.7bn litres of illegal alcohol confiscated
1537 attacks on police, 86 dead
686 police officers arrested for various crimes

For a case study, national police commissioner Riah Phiyega used data from KwaZulu-Natal and found the following:

61 percent of murders happen on weekends, 40 percent between 18:00 and 00:00
55 murders were reported on Christmas Day in KZN (far higher than the 11 a day average) and 54 on New Year’s Day.