The Covid-19 lockdown period resulted in almost 54 000 less contact crimes being reported nationally compared to the previous year.
This according to police crime statistics released for the period between April and June this year, the time in which the country was in lockdown. During this period, 90 376 contact crimes were reported to the police across the country, compared to the 144 267 cases reported at the same time last year. This was a decrease of 53 891 reported cases and also revealed decreases in reported cases of murder, sexual offences, assault with the intent to cause grievous bodily harm and many others.
There were 3 466 murders reported during this time, a decrease of 1 932 while cases of sexual offences dropped by 4 798 to 7 296. There was a 40.4 per cent decrease in reported rape cases (5 085) compared to 9 737 last year. This suggests that 2.5 rape cases were reported nationally per hour on average during the alert level 5 to 3 of the country’s lockdown. This equates to just more than 60 rape cases a day, a little under 424 a week and 1 695 per month over the three-month period.
The stats also show that while the majority of the country’s citizens were staying at home and doing all they could to manage the spread of the virus, the criminals were not. There were 19 cash-in-transit robberies and criminals have been taking advantage of people not being at their offices during the lockdown as burglary at non-residential premises was one of the few crimes to increase.
Compared to the previous year, 1 566 more cases of this crime were reported (18 840), compared to the same period last year. Since people have not being using there cars as often to go out, theft out of or from motor vehicle decreased by 13 934 of which there were 17 533 reported cases. Theft of motor vehicle and motorcycle reported cases (5 564) showed a decrease of 53 per cent.
The number of crimes detected as a result of police action also declined during this period. The liquor ban also had its affect on the stats. Driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs fell by 85.5 per cent (3 168 cases) compared to the 21 853 cases reported last year. Drug-related crimes decreased by a whopping 21 197 cases to a total of 18 767.
