No. 56 (2016): June 2016

This is the first issue in a new partnership between the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) and the University of Cape Town (UCT) as co-custodians of the South African Crime Quarterly (SACQ). We believe that the UCT Centre of Criminology’s commitment to advancing policy-relevant research and analysis on public safety, criminal justice and evolving forms of crime in South Africa, and the global South more broadly, complements the SACQ’s objective of contributing balance and objectivity to the discourse on human security in Africa. Both institutions are committed to ensuring that SACQ remains an accessible source of up-to-date policy-relevant research and analysis.

In this issue we revisit some of the key intersections of daily crime and violence affecting some of South Africa’s most vulnerable groups. We begin with an article by Mogstad, Dryding and Fiorotto exploring the challenges and limitations of policing domestic violence in Khayelitsha, Cape Town. Carolyn Agboola then reports on interviews with women who had been released from correctional facilities, documenting their claims of poor health care, sanitation, food, access to education and overcrowding. An article by Lancaster and Kamman explores the hypothesis that risk of murder is associated with particular demographic and contextual characteristics, and Jamil Mujuzi’c contribution ponders changes to Zimbabwe’s Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act in relation to private prosecutions. We end with an ‘On the Record’ interview with the Social Justice Coalition’s General Secretary, Phumeza Mlungwana, about crime and policing in Khayelitsha.