Rural Crime in South Africa: Searching for Explanations

• In Event: Criminology of Food and Agriculture PART I (Farm Victimisation)

Abstract

Generally over the years rural crime in South Africa has been largely ignored and/or under-researched by academics, particularly from a criminological perspective. With the recent exception of a focus on stock theft as a rural crime, most of the attention on rural crime in South Africa has been on so-called ‘farm attacks’, which has often been taken out of context and/or politicized. Part of the problem in researching rural crime in South Africa has been of a definitional nature. For instance in farm attacks, who are the ‘farmers’ and what constitutes a ‘farm’. Also ignored in the analysis of rural crime are many of the ‘other’ victims of farm attacks, namely the farm laborers and members of their families. Overall as a rural crime, stock theft in fact represents the biggest economic and crime impact on rural economies even though the usual range of violent crimes also occur in rural areas. This paper seeks to unpack rural crimes in the context of South African areas outside of the major urban areas, inter alia examining such aspects as the demise of the Commando System of rural protection and its belated replacement with a National Rural Safety Plan in the late 1990s.

Authors

• Willie Clack, University of South Africa

• Anthony Minnaar, University of South Africa