Download the file - United Nations Rule of Law

56Urban crime and violenceBurglary is the mostcommon propertycrime connected tolocal builtenvironmental anddesign featuresFigure 3.7Percentage ofrespondents statingthat they ‘feel unsafewalking home at night’Source: Nuttall et al, 2002, p40BrazilSouth AfricaBoliviaBotswanaZimbabweColombiaTanzaniaParaguayCosta RicaArgentinaAustraliaCatalonia (Spain)PolandUgandaIndonesiaPortugalEngland and WalesTunisiaBarbadosJapanChinaScotlandFranceSwitzerlandNorthern IrelandBelgiumNetherlandsDenmarkFinlandEgyptCanadaPhilippinesSwedenUSIndiadata reveals that more than half of the citizens worry aboutcrime all the time or very often. 38 A national surveyconducted in South Africa found that about 25 per cent ofrespondents indicated that concerns about crime preventedthem from starting their own businesses and interfered witheveryday transportation decisions. 39 Likewise, a World Bankstudy in Zambia uncovered significant fear of crime thatmanifested itself in the work decisions of teachers. 40 InLagos (Nigeria), 70 per cent of respondents in a city-widesurvey were fearful of being victims of crime, while 90 percent were fearful of the prospect of being killed in a criminalattack. 41Figure 3.7, based on ICVS and United Nations data,depicts the responses of people from 35 developing andindustrialized nations when asked how safe they felt walkinghome at night. It is obvious that although the fear of crime ispervasive, it is also extremely variable, with the highestlevels of fear reported being in Brazil, where 70 per cent ofrespondents felt unsafe walking home at night, and thelowest in India, with 13 per cent. Latin American andAfrican nations rank among the top ten. Regionally, the fearof crime and violence tends to correlate with police-recordedcrime and victimization surveys of crime and violence.RobberyRobbery may be defined as the taking of property throughthe use of violence or threat of violence. 42 Primarily acontact crime, robbery is often classified as both a violent0 20 40 60 80 100crime and a property crime in many jurisdictions.Consequently, it is more likely to be reported to police thanlesser crimes. Robbery is a major security threat and aspecial concern in developing countries. This is because itnot only results in injury and property loss to victims, butalso increases the general fear of crime. 43Figure 3.8 suggests that global robbery trends haveincreased between 1980 and 2000 from about 40 incidentsper 100,000 individuals to over 60. Data for Eastern Europe,Latin America and Africa (primarily from South Africa) isgrouped into ‘Selected countries with high robbery rates’. 44North America witnessed a remarkable decline from 200 per100,000 recorded cases in 1992 to about 120 in 2000.Victimization rates for robbery based on United Nationssurvey results are presented in Figure 3.9. It shows muchhigher rates for robbery in Latin America and Africa than inother regions of the world. Although of a shorter period, itcorroborates the information presented in the policereporteddata.Figure 3.10, based on Crime Trends Survey data,shows that South America has the highest robbery rates,with 442 incidents per 100,000 individuals. This is followedby Southern Africa, with 349 cases. The regions with thelowest rates of robbery are South Asia and the Middle East,with 3 and 2 incidents per 100,000 inhabitants, respectively.Although the findings are generally comparable, somedifferences between this data can be attributed to collectionprocedures and differences in the specificity of the varioussub-regions. As noted earlier, victimization surveys tend toyield more reliable data, especially when compared to policereports that depend upon the willingness of victims to comeforward.BurglaryAlthough often targeted against vehicles, burglary is themost common property crime connected to local builtenvironmental and design features. It may be generallydefined as the unlawful entry into someone else’s propertywith the intention to commit a crime. Like other crimes, theelements that constitute a burglary are different across theworld. For example, in some localities, theft from a carwould not be considered a burglary. In other places, therequired elements of a burglary include forced entry or thetaking of property, whereas other jurisdictions do not havethese requirements. High burglary rates have implicationsfor neighbourhoods, cities and nations. Commercial andresidential properties are frequent targets for burglaries anddata shows that, on average, one out of five urban residentsworldwide report being victimized within a five-yearperiod. 45Regional trends in burglary, robbery and assaultsbetween the period of 1996 to 2000, based on victimreports, are shown in Figure 3.11. The data includes 31countries that participated in the ICVS sweeps in 1996 and2000. Owing to differences in the number and distributionof countries analysed based on the 2000 ICVS survey,caution should be exercised in discerning the patterns,especially relative to developing nations. 46