21 May 2010, 09:34
Related Articles
Brits warned about SA's crime
Be good for four weeks, pleads Zuma
By Barry Bateman
Convicted criminals provide an invaluable source of intelligence on trends and modus operandi that police should be exploiting to combat crime, according to Unisa crime lecturer Dr Rudolph Zinn.
In collaboration with the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) and through Tafelberg Publishers, Zinn published his doctoral thesis in a new book, Home Invasion: Robbers disclose what you should know.
The book was launched at the ISS in Brooklyn this week, where Zinn provided insight into some of the findings which, according to ISS Crime and Justice Programme head Gareth Newham, was information the public ought to know.
Over a two-year period which started in 2006, Zinn interviewed 30 convicted house robbers at six correctional facilities in Gauteng.
Between them, they had committed 2 099 crimes before they were arrested for the first time, while 20 of the 30 prisoners committed 2 051 crimes they had not been convicted for. "The respondents admitted to 140 house robberies," said Zinn.
He said the police should debrief convicted criminals, as is international practice, to obtain intelligence they could use in combating crime.
Zinn said the information obtained in his research was not only useful for the police, but the general public too.
"South Africa needs to adopt an intelligence-led style of policing."
Zinn found that because of justice system failures, criminals became repeat offenders.
"If you do not stop the criminals in the early stages they go on to become violent criminals."
The robber's primary motivation was financial gain. "They go after the big money. About 35 percent was spent on survival, while the remaining 65 percent was squandered on parties, prostitutes and cars. One even bought a race horse.
"None of them turned to legal means of generating an income once they had the cash," he said.
Almost all of the respondents carried a firearm, while all of them used violence as a means of intimidation.
"They explained that they were doing the victims a favour so that they did not resist."
Zinn found that the robbers would not hesitate to use lethal force at even the slightest hint of resistance.
About 13 percent of the robbers said they used torture, which was used to force the victims to point out the location of valuables.
"They focused the torture on women and children. They found that men would withstand the torture, but when they threatened women and children, the men opened up. The respondents used boiling water over their victims' feet, dripped burning plastic on to them and burnt parts of their bodies."
More than half of the robberies occurred between 7pm and midnight. Zinn learnt that this was because during that period the victims were at home, the alarms were switched off and the noise in the home served as a cover.
Two-thirds of the robbers said they used information obtained from inside the home and chose areas where there was low or inadequate security.
The robbers claimed the best deterrents in the home were guard dogs, followed by a security fence.
"The further away from the house the alarm system is able to be triggered, the more effective it is.
"But there is no single security system that is effective, but rather layers of systems that serve as deterrents," said Zinn.
He found that 68 percent of the deterrent factors were situated outside the house.
Zinn said the robbers expected victims to fully submit, offer no resistance, carry out instructions and make no noise.
"Accept the fact that once you are confronted by a robber it is too late for self-defence."
Zinn said the best defence was to join a community policing forum to keep the criminals out of communities and homes.
"But do what is necessary when they are in your home."
The book is already on sale and retails for about R150.
This article was originally published on page 5 of The Pretoria News on May 21, 2010
The Star
Comments by Sonny
During the past all suspects were debriefed by the then SB.
The Intelligence Section took over those duties and they don't seem to have an
inclination on how to debrief and profile violent criminals.
The Lolly Jackson case is a good example of how involved the police were with thugs
and criminals.
And as for our "President" to make an appeal to criminals to behave for just 4 weeks?
This country is being run by the wrong people.
No comments:
Post a Comment