South Africa's house robbers are becoming more violent as attacks against home owners escalate.
This was the message from University of South Africa crime researcher Rudolph Zinn when he spoke in Pretoria last week. Zinn has recently finished a report on the profiling of South African house robbers that it is hoped will assist in the fight against crime.
Zinn interviewed 30 prisoners held in six Gauteng prisons for house robbery, a sub-category of robbery with aggravating circumstances.
Between the 2002/2003 and 2006/2007 financial years, house robberies increased by 29 percent, with 12 761 attacks occurring in the 2006/2007 financial year.
"Between the 2006/2007 and 2007/2008 financial years, these attacks increased by 25 percent, with 40 house robberies occurring every day, 20 of them taking place in Gauteng," he said.
The study revealed that those interviewed had, in total, committed 2 099 crimes, with 20 of the offenders admitting that they were involved in 2 051 crimes, which they had yet to be convicted for.
Zinn said 83 percent of those surveyed were South Africans aged between 19 and 26, 76 percent of them having left school between grades 8 and 12.
The study also shows that 97 percent use guns in the attacks, 30 percent commit murder, and 13 percent rape and torture their victims.
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