Crime and Violence

It is Wednesday, time is flying by. I have mostly been studying virology, and writing a paper about crime in KwaZulu Natal. the paper is for my service-learning (Poli Sci) class. We were allowed to research pretty much any topic related to policy in South Africa, and initially I was going to write about health care, but after observing in the hospital a couple weeks ago I realized that the root of a lot of the problems that came in to the hospital, was criminal violence. So I wanted to learn more about why there is so much of it, or even if there is all that much, compared to the past years. So far, the conclusions I have drawn are that the government transformed their approach from crime control to crime prevention, in 1996, with the National Crime Prevention Strategy (NCPS). This strategy also outlined other goals for the country, like better communication between different tiers of govt. and authority, and trying to portray a more accurate account of crime and violence in South Africa (to the Int'l community)-so as not to scare people, but to still be honest. The strategy highlighted the importance of incorporating the issues of crime and violence within other social reform and development initiatives, so as not to isolate the problem as something that could easily be fixed from one angle (like using only the police to fight crime, or placing all the money to carry out crime prevention in one area of the budget). By considering other social factors, like education and poverty alleviation, the NCPS is a farther sighted and more comprehensive measure when compared with other policies and agendas the country has tried to use. The NCPS has been faithful at reviewing it's accomplishments and failures, so that is good, too. All in all, crime and violence is still a problem here, while the stats say some incidences are on the decline, the daily news and stories from people still make the place out to be "dangerous". But, I guess compared to the late 80's and early 90's it is a dream.