Acta Criminologica: African Journal of Criminology & Victimology - latest Issue

Over the years, many questions have arisen about the legitimacy and utility of whistleblowing, the moral and/or social responsibility of whistleblowing, and whether anonymous whistleblowing is in fact ethical. There has also been the evaluation by scholars of the framework for managing whistleblowing in both private and public sectors and of the effectiveness and utility by government departments and (industry) regulatory agencies that are supposedly delegated to deal with, follow up, and manage whistleblowing information and protect whistleblowers from any possible retaliation/reprisals by those accused.

As noble as some of the motivations or sentiments around actual whistleblowing may be, it often takes a great deal of courage, determination and bravery for an individual to ‘come forward’, even anonymously, and provide information/evidence of wrongdoing by individuals or companies/organisations that might well lead to eventual prosecution. Whistleblowers would, consequently, need to be protected and possibly enter a witness protection programme if they fear for their safety.

Drawing on the structural theories of strain and control, the current study examined the neighbourhood correlates of homicidal strangulation in the City of Johannesburg in South Africa for the period 2001-2010. A principal components analysis was conducted, and binomial regression models fitted to examine the relationships between neighbourhood characteristics and fatal strangulation. The results demonstrated partial support for the theories of strain and control and indicated that the effect of theoretically and empirically derived socio-structural factors on homicidal strangulation is variant for different socio-demographic groups, with significant effects most distinct for blacks. The study recognises strangulation as a unique phenomenon that is distinct from overall homicide.

The Organisation of American States (OAS) Citizen Security indicators were launched as a regional agreement in the Americas to bring about the standardisation of citizen security indicators for the region, in order to compare and contrast citizen security related issues. The 22 indicators were agreed upon by member states at the 4^th OAS conference in 2012. This is the first attempt to critically review the suitability of the application of the indicators in an African context. The primary objective of this article being to review the OAS CSI for use in the pilot Cape Town Violence, Injury and Trauma Observatory (CT VITO). Research methods employed in this study included a review of all national and provincial violence-related databases so as to locate the citizen security indicators. Violence prevention stakeholders were contacted where indicators were not reported in national or provincial reports. International organisation databases, such as the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), were reviewed where indicators were not reported locally. Delphi is a planned consensus process that utilises a panel of experts to investigate a complex problem, employing a sequence of structured statements. A Delphi study was conducted to allow the opportunity for local experts in injury surveillance and emergency services to comment on the 19 Citizen Security indicators and to determine their inclusion in the pilot observatory. Three indicators were excluded as they were either related to traffic injuries or dealt with child and adolescent injuries, which is not the primary focus of the pilot observatory. The remaining 19 indicators were all found to be viable for inclusion in the pilot CT VITO. Following the Delphi study, 14 indicators reached positive consensus, seven indicators reached negative consensus and nine indicators did not reach consensus. The indicators that reached positive consensus will inform the basic research infrastructure of the pilot VITO, along with datasets and research priorities established by the Delphi study, and may serve as part of a regional standardised data collection to guide the development of other local violence and injury observatories.

Victim input at the parole decision-making process has become an integral part of corrections in South Africa during the last decade. A question that could be raised, however, has to do with the extent to which this development affects the rights of offenders. Providing more rights to victims, after all, does not necessarily mean that justice will be better served towards all concerned. The problem is that the development of the parole process, since Maconochie’s initial idea of placing the responsibility for reform in the hands of the offender, has changed significantly. With the introduction of the Rehabilitation Model in the 1920s, parole decisions were taken based on the opinions of ‘experts,’ with the result that proper due process rights for offenders were deemed unnecessary. Victim input in parole deliberations differ from rehabilitation in the sense that an adversarial situation could be created in the parole process when most victims oppose parole. To ensure fairness under such a situation, it is important that offenders should have the right to defend themselves. The current system, which holds that parole release should be viewed as a privilege and not a right, lacks in this regard with very few due process rights available to offenders. This may result in the misuse of parole by victims and other parties. The fact that even more variables are brought into play that may lead to parole being refused can also lead to an erosion of offenders’ control over their lives which could result in a sense of injustice and offenders giving up on attempts to rehabilitate themselves.

In South Africa, limited research exists regarding the parole revocation process and the parole revocation hearing is, so to speak, hidden from public view. In this article findings are presented from a mixed methods research study that explored parole violators’ perspectives on parole revocation. The study involved the collection and analysis of primarily quantitative data from self-administered questionnaires and was complemented by a qualitative data collection phase consisting of focus group interviews. The parole violators who participated in the study shared invaluable information about their experiences regarding parole and the parole revocation process. In practice, there is a noticeable inconsistency in dealing with parole violations. One offender may have a record of numerous technical violations and still be on parole, while another offender may have parole revoked after a minor technical violation. The research findings revealed the importance of graduated responses to parole violations that are fair, consistent, and legal.

Nightclubs in South Africa rely heavily on private security personnel to protect their property and ensure the safety of patrons during busy nights. However, the use of physical force by private security guards, which is often coupled with thuggery and unprofessional behaviour, is a concern among many interest groups and scholars. Bouncers should be employed in a professional capacity as their functions are regulated by the Private Security Industry Regulatory Authority (PSIRA) that adopted a Code of Conduct, which should be adhered to by all private security concerns and their employees. The focus of the study was to investigate the nature of the interaction between bouncers and patrons. It is postulated that trained and qualified private security personnel are better skilled and equipped to respond to risky and dangerous circumstances than untrained and unqualified private security personnel. It was in this direction that the researchers engaged in an investigation of private security compliance with PSIRA and their obligation and interaction with patrons. Nine male bouncers and one female bouncer as well as twenty undergraduate students from the University of KwaZulu-Natal were sampled. It was found that, although the bouncers had experienced physical altercations with patrons, their relationships with some male, and particularly with most female patrons, was positive. However, most of the bouncers had never received appropriate training and neither were they registered with PSIRA.

The purpose of this article is to focus on the level of implementation of sector policing in South Africa in terms of Sector Policing National Instruction 3/2013. The contribution also focuses on the perceptions of South African Police Service officers responsible for implementing sector policing at police stations according to the guidelines of National Instruction 3 of 2013. In a study conducted by van Niekerk (2016), the qualitative research results indicate challenges preventing police officials from adequately implementing Sector Policing National Instruction 3/2013. A noteworthy number of station commanders and sector commanders of urban and rural police stations stated that sector policing, as defined by Sector Policing National Instruction 3/2013, was a pro-active partnership policing approach and a crime reduction strategy but emphasised that successful implementation of sector policing depends on certain conditions. An overview of some of their responses regarding these conditions will be highlighted.

Police officers wield wide discretionary powers, which, amongst others, include; the power to arrest, detain and search. All too often, police organisations have had to content with allegations of abuse of these discretionary powers. The abuse of power mainly manifests through serious violations of citizens’ fundamental rights. Various measures are available to curb violations of citizens’ rights by the police, and include: parliamentary oversight; oversight by the courts; oversight by the media and civic society; and oversight by the human rights commission. This paper explores the effectiveness of the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission (ZHRC) as a police accountability institution, and evaluates the regulatory framework for the operation of this key institution. Purposive sampling was utilised to gather data from a sample of 126 participants from various institutions of accountability, such as the Court, The Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission, Parliament of Zimbabwe, and media and non-governmental organisations. In the absence of an independent body to solely deal with police misconduct in Zimbabwe, it was found that participants trust the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission to handle human rights-related cases of police misconduct. Whilst the nation has taken an important step to establish the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission through constitutional provision and promulgation of an enabling statute, the institution has encountered several obstacles. In this regard, limited investigative powers, limited funding and centralisation of Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission offices are highlighted as factors, which impede the efficiency of Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission.

In South Africa, the police are tasked with enforcing restrictions on when and where liquor may be sold, consumed and on blood alcohol concentrations (BACs) in drivers. The aim of this study was to determine the factors associated with adult drinkers’ involvement with the police due to their drinking to ascertain the characteristics of those most likely to be apprehended by the police. Data was used from the South African arm of the International Alcohol Control (IAC) Study. This study implemented multi-stage stratified cluster random sampling. The sample comprised 1 975 participants (62% males) aged 18-65 years. Factors explored included participants’ last six months’ involvement with the police due to drinking; their demographic characteristics; drinking location; type of alcohol drink consumed; diagnosis of alcohol use disorder (AUD); and perception of the police apprehending a drunk driver or someone drinking in liquor-ban areas (drinking in public places).It was revealed in the findings that alcohol-related police involvement was significantly associated with drinking spirits; and positive screening to AUD. Participants who were white were less likely to have been involved with the police due to drinking compared to those who were black African. Participants’ perception of the likelihood of a drunk driver being caught by the police was also significantly associated with their alcohol-related police. Emanating from the results it was recommended that prevention and interventions to treat people with AUDs be implemented; and that a general reduction in alcohol intake be encourage, as well as to identify and address specific risks associated with drinking spirits. These are needed to help people drink more responsibly. Efforts should also be made to increase public perception of the likelihood and consequences of drunk drivers being caught by the police.