Fear of crime in Tanzania higher than in SA-report

BY LYDIA SHEKIGHENDA

24th October 2013

  Housebreaks and physical assaults on the rise

Dr. Abel Kinyondo

In Tanzania, 40 percent of the people have experienced crime and face anxiety over possible crime followed by South Africa which recorded 38 percent, Cameroon 37 percent and Liberia 35 percent. According to the research findings, when Tanzania is compared to 33 other African countries, Tanzania’s performance in people’s safety is dismal.

In fact, crime in Tanzania has considerably increased in the country from the mid 2000s to date with the number of Tanzanians whose homes have been broken into and those who have experienced physical attacks having grown considerably.
These are the findings of the fifth Afrobarometer survey which was released yesterday in Dar es Salaam by Research on Poverty Alleviation (REPOA) and was conducted between May and June of last year with 2400 adult Tanzanians participating.

Releasing the findings Senior Researcher at REPOA Dr. Abel Kinyondo said 43 percent of Tanzanians feared crime in homes while 37 percent feared crime in the neighborhood.

He said that the findings also showed that 44 percent of Tanzanians have been physically attacked between 2011 and 2012. Also crime reporting in the country is very low with only 42 percent of people who were the victims of crime in 2011- 2012 reported the incidents to the police.

According to the findings, the frequently cited reasons for not reporting the crimes to the police include police stations being too far, police do not listen or care and corruption.

The researchers presenting the analysis noted that even though comparable to the general African average, Tanzania’s self reported crimes rate is considerably low in comparison to say Algeria and Mauritius where more than two thirds of all crime incidents were reported to police.

The findings also showed that women tend to be more fearful of crime compared to men even though the data reveals they are no more likely to fall victims of the two kinds of crime compared to men.

He said fear of crime in the country was low between 2003 and 2008 but it has surprisingly grown since then and recommended that much more education be disseminated on police services, increase police stations especially in rural areas and the need for police to keep ethics and codes.

“Fear of crime in homes has increased …it is important to look on the source of this situation and what should be done to fight the crime,” REPOA Executive Director Professor Samuel Wangwe said.

Senior Superintendent of Police Beatus Silla acknowledged that most people are not aware of the services provided by the force despite their efforts to run several campaigns including distribution of placards and brochures.

Silla said the Police force is moving from traditional to modern policing and it has embarked on major reforms to ensure that they serve the community well and it has interim dispatched 258 police inspectors to various wards on both the Mainland and in constituencies in Zanzibar. 

SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN