THERE is a heightened sense of insecurity among the South African populace, fuelled by the recorded increase in violent crime.
This is exacerbated by a decline of confidence in the ability of law enforcers to protect ordinary citizens.
According to a recent Victims of Crime Survey released by Statistics South Africa, there is a credible correlation between income inequality and crime.
Poverty is a driver of violent crime.
Based on World Bank indices, SA is the most unequal country in the world, with the greatest disparity of wealth between the bottom 10% of the population and the top 10%.
There is some evidence that indicates economic growth, leading to a decrease in poverty, can result in a drop in crime rates.
But what is becoming more apparent is that both poverty and greed are feeding crime.
It is not just the poorest of the poor trying to survive through wrongdoing; crime is a sophisticated and lucrative career funding the lavish lifestyles of merciless criminals.
People are trading on vulnerability and are exploiting the poor, uneducated and naïve.
The recent article showing how unemployed women fell for a rapist’s ruse in Empangeni is a case in point.
The suspect, working with a female accomplice, phones unemployed females, offering jobs.
A meeting is set up, during which the man leads the women to a sugarcane field or bushes nearby, where he assaults and rapes them.
Uncharacteristically – as rape is a crime of power as much as a sexual act – he leaves them alive.
And there is no shortage of potential victims.
Despite the increased publicity of criminal activity, more people are falling prey daily to unscrupulous scam artists and violent robbers.
The public needs to be far more conscious and should not accompany anyone who promises jobs, nor part with money.
Neither should they be led into an ambush online, as these fiends also seek their prey from behind computers.
The internet is becoming a breeding ground for con artists, who not only steal from the rich through high-tech scams but also pounce on vulnerable and desperate job seekers.
The reality is that society includes a ‘sick’ minority of people and we need to be alert as criminals capitalise on those who are naïve and gullible.
In your desperation, don’t let hope get the better of common sense.
