Exploring the Relationship between Social Disorganization and Violent Crime in Gauteng, South Africa.

• In Event: Structural Inequalities, Neighborhoods and Crime

Abstract

The high levels of crime in South Africa (SA) have received a significant amount of attention. Viewed as a threat to the rule of the law, crime has traditionally been explained as resulting from the vestiges of apartheid, mainly poverty and inequality. Though the conditions of daily life in many areas can easily be characterized as socially disorganized, few studies have attempted to explain crime within this framework and few investigate the spatial dimension of violent crime. Utilizing newly developed spatial datasets obtained from the Institute for Security Studies (ISS), the present study explores the relationship between key variables of social disorganization theory (income, employment, poverty, education, urbanization and population rates) and violent crime (murder, attempted murder, assault and robbery with aggravating circumstances) in Gauteng, South Africa’s most urbanized and populous province. ArcGIS 10.0, GEODA and SAS are utilized to spatially and statistically analyze this relationship through the application of spatial correlations and regression analyses. The use of geo-analysis is particularly important in SA where its use is in its early stages and has great potential for improving crime prevention procedures. In this way, the study aims to contribute to a more thorough understanding of the correlates of violent crime.

Authors

• Alexandra Hiropoulos, CUNY Graduate Center

• Jeremy Reed Porter, CUNY Graduate Center