n Acta Criminologica: Southern African Journal of Criminology - Experiences of crime in a commercial production area : utilising the empirical-phenomenological method

Abstract

This article deals with the phenomenon of crime as experienced by farmers in various farms in the area of "Transvaal Sugar Limited". The empirical-phenomenological method was utilised and the following five steps were employed: reduced transcriptions, summarising the main points of the case, illustrated condensation of the case, description of the psychological structure of the case and essential structure of interviews in all the cases. The essential structure of farmers' experiences of farm crimes identified five areas which addressed the experience of crime as a theme namely anticipation of levels of service delivery by the SAPS, reaction arising from frustration at poor service delivery, crime prevention as an extension of the previous area, effect of crime on quality of life and mutual trust and loyalty between farmers and farmworkers.