An analysis of crime prevention as a core function of the South African Police Service
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Authors
Vuma, Phillip Resimate
Issue Date
2011-10
Type
Thesis
Language
en
Keywords
Crime prevention as the core function of the police , Police role in crime prevention , The function of the South African Police service , Can the police prevent crime? , Police role in safeguarding the public against crime , Analysing the role of the police in crime prevention , An analysis of crime prevention as a core function of the South African Police
Alternative Title
Abstract
The basic mission of the police is to prevent crime and disorder and this translates into
measuring police efficiency by the absence of crime and disorder rather than the visible
actions taken to deal with crime and restore the violated order. For almost two centuries
now, crime prevention has been understood and approached as the core responsibility
of the police as they are the active partners who are responsible to activate the
community who is the passive partner towards crime prevention. Recently there are
scholars, police scientists and researchers who are of the view that the police cannot
prevent crime so crime prevention should not be the core function of the police.
The study gives a detailed analysis of the proponents and opponents of crime
prevention as the core function of the police. This analysis has been provided in the
context of the origin of policing through to the modern era in policing in an attempt to
find out for which purpose the police had been established for. This is done in order to
track down whether the initial purpose for which the police had been established for has
changed in modern policing, with the ultimate aim of affirming or negating the
proposition by some of the proponents of crime prevention as not the core function of
the police, who are of the view that crime prevention should no longer be the core
function of the police, as used to be the case.The arguments and counter arguments on whether crime prevention is the core function
of the police or not, as well as the response from the selected countries were analyzed.
The golden thread that runs through the eras of policing is that crime prevention is and
has always been the main function of the police. The relative ease of measuring police
performance by reactive activities in comparison with proactive activities seems to
indicate that the police might focus more working on these measurable activities as
compared to crime prevention activities that could go unnoticed.
Description
Citation
Vuma, Phillip Resimate (2011) An analysis of crime prevention as a core function of the South African Police Service, University of South Africa, Pretoria, <http://hdl.handle.net/10500/5241>