CRIME QUARTERLY - Amazon AWS

CRIMEQUARTERLY

SA

Results of the national youth victimisation study1

Youth from violent families: easy victims of crime?7

Adults using children to commit crime13

Countering human trafficking: considerations and constraints19

Police abuse of sex workers when making arrests27

No. 16June 2006

CONTENTS

SA Crime QuarterlyNo. 16 June 2006

This publication is funded by Hanns Seidel Stiftung

EASY PREYResults of the national youth victimisation studyPatrick Burton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

DOUBLE TROUBLEYouth from violent families: easy victims of crime? Lezanne Leoschut . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7

ABUSE OF A DIFFERENT KINDAdults using children to commit crimeCheryl Frank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13

CHEAP LIVESCountering human trafficking: considerations and constraintsChandré Gould . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19

ENFORCING FEARPolice abuse of sex workers when making arrestsNicolé Fick . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27

SA CRIME QUARTERLY No 16 JUNE 2006 1

EASY PREY

Results of thenational youthvictimisation study

Recent media reports have highlighted incidents of violence and crimes against children and young people in

South Africa. Yet, up till now, there has been little exploration of the extent and nature of criminal

victimisation against youth. The recent National Youth Victimisation Study reveals that young people are

almost twice as likely to be victimised as adults, and that young people are surrounded by violence and crime

in all the spheres they occupy: the home, the school and the community.

According to recent press reports, in theperiod between 2004 and 2005, 85,808crimes were committed against children, of

which over 27,000 were sexual offences, and over1,000 were murders.1 Internationally, victim surveyshave shown that children and young people arevictimised at a significantly higher rate than adults.2

Yet, other than the occasional sensationalised reportin the media on child rapes and murders or attacksin schools, there is a dearth of accurate data oncrimes against children and young people in SouthAfrica.

This is an important gap in the literature, as thevictimisation of young people can have atremendous impact on their ability to relate to othersand form healthy relationships, their performance atschool, as well as their vulnerability to latervictimisation as adults.3 Victimisation at an early agehas also been identified as one of the many riskfactors associated with later anti-social or delinquentbehaviour.4 In a country where crime is widelyperceived as endemic, the lack of focus on childrenand youth as victims of crime is highly problematic.This gap has been filled in part by the recentNational Youth Victimisation Study, conducted bythe Centre for Justice and Crime Prevention.5

The international experienceThe United States of America and Britain haveonly in the past five years begun to focus on thedisproportionate victimisation of youth. In theUnited States, data from the NationalVictimisation Survey, the National YouthVictimisation Survey, and the Uniform CrimeReports reveal some startling figures:• Youth between the ages of 12 and 19 years are

twice to three times more likely to be victims ofassault, rape and robbery than older agegroups.

• Homicide rates are highest for youths of 17 to 19 years of age, then decline through the higherages.6

More recent reports argue that 22% of all violentcrimes in the United States are committed againstjuveniles.7 These crimes may be committed bystrangers or by individuals known to the youth orchild. In fact, with the exception of robbery, themajority of cases across most crimes tend to becommitted by someone known to the victim.

In the United Kingdom, the British Crime Survey,together with a National Youth Survey, showedthat:

Patrick BurtonCentre for Justice and Crime [email protected]

SA CRIME QUARTERLY No 16 JUNE 20062 BURTON

a stratified probability proportionate to sizemethodology, from a sampling frame based on theStatistics South Africa census data of young peoplebetween 12 and 22 years of age. The sample wasstratified by province and race.

A total sample of 4,409 respondents was interviewed. Following data capture and validationin SPSS, the data were benchmarked and weightedby province, race and gender. This approachallows for the accurate extrapolation of the sampleto young people aged between 12 and 22throughout South Africa.

Extent of crime against young people In the period between September 2004 andSeptember 2005, 42% of South African childrenand youth between the ages of 12 and 22 yearswere victims of crime or violence. This translatesto roughly 4.3 million young people. These crimesinclude assault, sexual assault/rape, theft, robbery,housebreaking and car hijacking.

The crimes of assault, sexual assault/rape, theftand robbery are all crimes committed against theindividual. While not crimes experienced directlyagainst a child or youth, crimes such ashousebreaking and car hijacking are important inassessing the levels of crime that young people aredirectly exposed to, and which are likely to impacton their development, socialisation, andexperience and perceptions of life.

It might be argued that property crimes such astheft, or housebreaking have less of an impact onyoung people than the violent personal crimes ofrobbery, sexual assault or rape, and assault. Even ifthis is true, this offers little reassurance in theSouth African case, where slightly morerespondents actually fall prey to violent crime(27%), than to property crime (26%).

The youth victimisation data is directlycomparable to the 2003 National Victims of Crimesurvey conducted by the Institute for SecurityStudies.9 A comparison between the victimisationrates shows that young people are twice as likelyto be victims of at least one crime than adults(Figure 1). One in ten young people had

• 35% of youngsters had been physically attacked at school, and 39% in their area of residence.

• 45% had been threatened at school, and 38% where they lived.

• 22% had had their mobile phone stolen at school, and 25% had their phone stolen in their area of residence.

• 24% had something else stolen at school, while 7% had something else stolen from them in thearea where they lived.8

These findings provide some indication of whatmight be expected in a youth victimisation surveyin South Africa, where crime rates are significantlyhigher than in the US or the UK.

Collecting data on crimeData on the rates of crime are generally collectedfrom two sources: police statistics, which aredependent on the reporting of crimes to the police,and victim surveys. The proclivity to report crimeto the police may depend on the nature of thecrime, whether insurance is to be claimed, thelevels of trust that the victims have in the police, ortheir belief that there is some use in reporting tothe police, as well as the accessibility of thepolice.

Victim surveys are best seen as complementing thedata available from the police, as they are basedon a self-report system, when there is usually nomotive to either over-report or under-reportincidents. Victim surveys are usually conducted ata household level, with respondents interviewedwithin the home environment, and asked a seriesof specific questions regarding perceptions ofcrime, their feelings of safety, and importantly, theirexperience of a range of crimes over a pre-definedperiod (usually the preceding 12 months). Byasking people about individual crimes, andlocating them within a predefined period that isnot too far in the past, it becomes possible tocollect accurate information on the extent and thenature of crimes experienced.

Research methodologyThe National Youth Victimisation Study followedthe standardised research approach for youthvictimisation surveys. The sample was drawn using

Table 1: Youth victimisation by area type

Area classification

Metro Urban Rural Total

Any crime 44.6 42.0 40.5 41.5

Property crime 26.8 25.1 25.7 25.6

Violent crime 30.8 26.9 25.5 26.6

Youth living in metropolitan areas of eThekwini,Nelson Mandela, Tshwane, Johannesburg, andCity of Cape Town are most likely to be victimsof crime, while those in rural areas are the leastlikely.

SA CRIME QUARTERLY No 16 JUNE 2006 3BURTON

Repeat victimisation is common: more than onetenth (14%) of all those interviewed had beenvictimised on more than one occasion during the12 month period.

An analysis of victimisation by age provides someinteresting observations. Children between 12 and14 years, and youth between 18 and 20 years ofage, are most likely to be victims of crime. Asshown in Figure 2, the violent crimes of robberyand assault are more common among the older agegroups of 18 to 20 and 21 to 22 years of age, whilethe property crime of theft is most common amongthe younger children. This may in part be explainedby the lifestyle of older youths, who are more likelyto spend time socialising, out of their ‘safe’environments, and in areas that would put themmore at risk of violent crimes.

Nature of crime against young peopleA total of one in five (20%) young people werevictims of theft of personal property in the 12-month period. As the most common crime, theft ofpersonal property could include the theft of itemssuch as money, wallets or purses, schoolbags,books, music equipment or any other personalbelongings. In a country where almost one out of

Figure 1: Youth and adult victims of crime in South Africa 2005 and 2003

experienced more than one crime over a 12 monthperiod between September 2004 and September2005.

Boys are more at risk of becoming victims of crimeand violence than girls, with almost one out of two(46%) males reporting victimisation as compared to37% of young females. This trend holds for allcrimes except sexual assault and rape. This fits theinternational trend that places young men at greaterrisk of victimisation than young women.

% o

f res

pond

ents

who

wer

e vi

ctim

s

0

10

20

30

45

5

15

25

35

Any crime Theft of personal property

Assault Housebreaking Robbery Sexual assault Car hijacking

41

23

20

5

17

2

108 9

24

0

10

2

2005 NYVS 2003 NVCS

40


Assaults recorded in the survey include incidentsof bullying that occurs at school. The frequencyof violent experiences at schools contributes tothe levels of fear that many children expressedof their school environment. One in tenyoungsters (10%) attending school reported thatthey were scared at school.

two (49%) inhabitants fall under the poverty line,10

and 27% of the population is unemployed,11 theft ofany goods can be a significant trauma and have arange of negative consequences for the victims.

Roughly one in six (17%) young people wereassaulted in 2005. These assaults were most likely tooccur at school (26%), in the street near shops(21%), or at home (20%). Nine out of ten of theyoung people who were assaulted knew theirattacker, most often from school or elsewhere intheir community. This is in accordance with trendsidentified in the international literature that suggestin the majority of both assault and robbery casesagainst young people, the perpetrator is known to,and often a peer of, the young victim.12

In total, one in ten (10%) young people were robbedin the 12 month period. This translates to roughly973,000 young South Africans between 12 and 22years old. One in three robbery victims knew whohad robbed them. Perpetrator(s) tended to be

someone from the young person’s community (38%),or a schoolmate (21%).

A point must be made about the cases of sexualassault or rape reported in this study. In total, 4.5% ofyoungsters reported experiences of sexual assault orrape over the preceding 12 months. Victim surveysare notoriously weak instruments for measuringincidents such as these, as they entail supplying verypersonal information to a complete stranger knockingon one’s door. They do not offer any of the supportiveenvironmental factors that might normally be requiredin exploring the extent or nature of sexual crimes.

The rate of report here is thus indicative rather thanan exact representation. As Figure 1 shows, the rate issignificantly higher than that revealed in the 2003National Victims of Crime survey. The fact that thefigure is as high as it is here is perhaps an indicationof the extent of this crime within this age group, andthe real figure is perhaps three or four times what isshown here.

Reporting of crime and violenceAs previously mentioned, official police statistics aredependent on the reporting of crimes to the police.Yet in many instances crimes remain unreported dueto feelings of mistrust, a lack of confidence in thepolice, lack of access to a police station, fear ofretribution, or simply because the crime is notperceived as serious enough to report. However,

Figure 2: Youth victimisation by age (n=1,913)

% o

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ents

who

wer

e vi

ctim

s

0

10

20

30

45

5

15

25

35

Any crime

40 42 41 42 40

24

2018 19

17 16 16 15

5 910

13

Theft Assault Robbery

12-14 years 15-17 years 18-20 years 21-22 years

SA CRIME QUARTERLY No 16 JUNE 2006 5BURTON

reporting often gives victims access to essentialservices that serve to ease the psychological trauma,and in many instances, treat the physical injuries,that result from victimisation.

It might be expected that young people are morelikely than adults to tell others about crimes againstthem. Children will not easily hide injuries fromtheir parents, and if they lose clothes, books, orother items, it is almost inevitable that an adult,either parent or teacher, will find out. Thefts of itemssuch as money or cell phones are equally likely tobe discovered.

As Figure 3 illustrates, in the majority of instancessomeone in the family was told about the crime.Most commonly this person was one of the child’sparents or caregivers. In only a few cases were thepolice told about the incident, with reports rangingfrom 7% in the case of thefts, to 16% in the case ofassaults.

Exposure to violenceThe prevalence of violence such as assault androbbery against South African youth is furtherexacerbated by the exposure, other than personalvictimisation, to violence within their home, schooland community environments. Extensiveinternational research has shown that exposure toviolence and crime at a young age, including acts ofpersonal victimisation, will increase significantly the

likelihood of engaging in anti-social or criminalbehaviour at a later stage in life.13 Those who areexposed to such incidents within their communitiesand homes are also at greater risk of victimisationthemselves.

The survey revealed just how common exposure toviolence is for South African children and youth.Three out of five young people have witnessedincidents of intentional violence within their homecommunity, and one out of five children or youthshave been witness to incidents of domestic violencewithin their own home.

One in two children or youth below the age of 22years knows someone in their community whocommits crime; while one in four knows someonewho actually makes their living from criminalactivity. One in ten young people have at least onefamily member who had engaged in activities thatcould get them into trouble with the law over theperiod September 2004 to September 2005.

These experiences clearly impact on the overallquality of life of South African youth and children.Approximately 28% of young people, just underthree million people, cite murder as the one thingthat they are most scared of, while over one fifth(21%) cite rape or sexual assault. These fears mirrorthose of the adult population of South Africa, withthe 2003 National Victims of Crime Survey revealingthat murder, housebreaking and sexual assault orrape were what most South Africans were afraid of.

These rates of crime against young people haveprofound implications. Fear of crime permeatesevery aspect of young South Africans’ lives. One infive do not feel safe in the community in which theylive, and just under one in ten feels scared ofcriminals when they are at home. This, together withthose who feel scared at school, reflects the generalconditions of fear that many young people in thecountry live under.

The normalisation of crimeThese fears feed into what can be called thenormalisation of crime for young South Africans. Notonly have almost one in two been victims of crimeor violence, but they are exposed to it on a range of

Figure 3: Who crimes were reported to (multiple response, % of counts)

0

90

70

50

80

60

40

30

20

10

Theft of personalproperty

Assault Robbery

Family Police Other

% o

f vic

tims

who

rep

orte

d cr

ime

45

7

50

78

114

75

16

8


levels in their home, school and social lives. Crime is something that surrounds almost allyoung people in South Africa in some form oranother.

In addition to the exposure and victimisationdiscussed above, almost one in five children oryouth had considered engaging in acts thatconstitute a crime. One half of these, just under onemillion youngsters, had committed criminal acts.Personal knowledge of people who do engage incrime is also common. Almost one in every twoyoung persons personally knows someone who iscurrently, or who has been, in jail for criminalactivities.

Violence and crime have become something notunusual, or deviant, but commonplace. Despite theextent of victimisation, the levels of repeatvictimisation and the acts of violence that surroundthese young people, levels of fear remainsurprisingly low. Fewer than one tenth (9%) of youngpeople report feeling scared at home, while only alittle over one in ten (12%) report feeling scared atschool, or for those that work, in their workplace.

Breaking the cycleBeing beaten up, having belongings stolen, orwatching one parent beat the other, has become away of life for the majority of young South Africans.Perpetrators all too often are other children andyoung people, the same age or slightly older thanthe victims, people who themselves are surroundedby violence on all levels, and for whom such actshave become an acceptable way of obtainingsomething desired, or of resolving a dispute orconflict.

Unless steps are taken to provide a range of moreefficient social services and support for children andyouth, and as more and more young people fallvictim to these crimes, criminal acts will simplybecome the preferred way for many to achieve theirgoals. Coherent strategies offering alternatives toviolence as a form of conflict resolution, andencouraging the reporting of crimes and violence tothe authorities, need to be combined with broaderpolicies designed to make schools and the home inparticular, safer for young people.

Parents, caregivers and educators need to be madeaware of the cycles of violence in which youngpeople find themselves, and trained to facilitate waysof breaking these cycles. Effective and accessiblesupport measures for young people who have beenvictimised need to be developed within all therealms that children occupy, but most importantlythe school and home, bearing in mind that in someinstances educators and caregivers might becomplicit in the crime. Most importantly, adequateresources need to be allocated to these strategies.

Endnotes1 Sexual Offences Bill goes to Cabinet, 3 May, 2006,

<http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=vn20060503004253794C486153>

2 D Finkelhor and R Ormrod, Characteristics of Crimes Against Children, Juvenile Justice Bulletin, USDepartment of Justice, June 2000, and SM Catalano,Criminal victimisation, 2004, Bureau of Justice Statistics,US Department of Justice, September 2005.

3 R MacMillan, Violence and the life course: the consequences of victimization for personal and socialdevelopment, Annual Reviews Sociology, 27, 2001, pp 1 – 22.

4 PD Harms and HN Snyder, Trends in the murder of juveniles 1980 - 2000, Juvenile Justice Bulletin, USDepartment of Justice, September 2004.

5 The full report on the findings of this study can be found in L Leoschut and P Burton, How Rich the Rewards?Results of the 2005 National Youth Victimisation Study,Cape Town, CJCP Monograph Series No. 1, 2006.

6 E Lewit and L Baker, Children as Victims of Violence, The Future of Children, Winter 1996, <www.futureofchildren.org/usr_doc/vol6no3ART13.pdf>

7 Finkelhor and Ormrod, op.cit.8 R Jubb, Youth Victimisation: A Literature Review,

Community Safety Practice Briefing, NACRO: February2003, <www.nacro.org.uk/templates/publications/briefingItem.cfm/2003021903-csps.htm>

9 P Burton, A du Plessis, T Leggett, A Louw, D Mistry and H van Vuuren, National Victims of Crime Survey:South Africa 2003, ISS Monograph Series, No. 101,Pretoria, 2004.

10 United Nations Development Programme (2003) South Africa Human Development Report 2003, OxfordUniversity Press , p 5, available on <http://www.undp.org.za/NHDR2003/NHDRSumFull.pdf>.

11 Statistics South Africa (2006) Labour Force Survey 2001 – 2004, Statistical Release P0210, available on<http://www.statssa.gov.za/Publications/P0210September2005.pdf>

12 Finkelhor and Ormrod, op.cit.13 JL Lauritsen, How families and communities influence

youth victimization, Juvenile Justice Bulletin, USDepartment of Justice, November 2003.


between the ages of 12 and 22 years was identified.Based on this, a sample of 333 enumerator areas(EAs) was randomly selected, with 13 households ineach identified for interviews. The final data wasweighted by province, race and gender, using themarginal totals drawn from the 2001 census. Thiswas done to ensure the most accuraterepresentation of the experiences of young peoplethroughout South Africa.

Participants responded to a survey questionnaireexploring their exposure to, and experiences of,crime and violence in their homes, schools, and thebroader communities in which they live. Theparticular crimes explored in this study includedboth:• violent crimes such as robbery, assault, rape/

sexual assault and car hijackings; and• property crimes such as theft of personal property

and housebreakings.

The questionnaire was piloted at two sites inGauteng, one rural and one urban. Following thepilot, minor revisions were made to thequestionnaire. Respondents were specifically askedabout their experiences in the 12 months precedingthe study, in order to minimise recall limitations.

Youth in South Africa are exposed todisturbingly high rates of violence withintheir families. Previous research studies

investigating this phenomenon have, for the mostpart, centred on the psychological impact onchildren who witness violence against theirmothers. Many of these studies have however failedto probe other forms of violence that typically occurin families and the consequences that these mighthold for children and youth.

This article attempts to bridge this gap by drawingon the research findings of the first National YouthVictimisation Study conducted in 2005.1 It aims toshed light on the victimisation experiences of youthby exploring the links between exposure to violencewithin the family (both as direct victims and aswitnesses) and criminal victimisation in the SouthAfrican environment.2

MethodologyThe victimisation survey final sample comprised4,409 young people between the ages of 12 and 22years, recruited from all nine provinces in SouthAfrica. The sample frame was provided by StatisticsSouth Africa 2001 census data, and the sample wasstratified by province and race. The total population

Lezanne LeoschutCentre for Justice and Crime Preventionlezanne@ cjcp.org.za

DOUBLE TROUBLE

Youth from violentfamilies: easyvictims of crime?

Crime and violence are pervasive in South Africa, and children and young people in particular are exposed to

high rates of violence within their homes. This article demonstrates that exposure to family violence increases

the vulnerability of young people to becoming victims of crime. Interventions are needed that aim to change

behaviour within families, provide institutional support for children outside the home, and thus make a

tangible difference to the lives of South African youth.

20

10

0

%

SA CRIME QUARTERLY No 16 JUNE 20068 LEOSCHUT

The raw data was then captured using the StatisticalPackage for the Social Sciences (SPSS) and wasanalysed by means of frequencies and cross-tabulations using chi-square statistical tests.

Demographic profile of the sampleOf those surveyed, the majority came fromKwaZulu-Natal (23%), Gauteng (16%), Eastern Cape(16%) and Limpopo (14%) (Figure 1).

appears to have become entrenched in SouthAfrican families.

More than a fifth (22%) of the respondents hadwitnessed family members intentionally hurting oneanother (Figure 3). Of particular concern is theviolent nature of these family disputes, since twofifths (40%) of those who were exposed to domesticviolence reported that a weapon had been used inthe attack. Subsequently, more than a quarter (28%)indicated that the victim in these disputes hadsustained injuries as a result of the altercation.While exposure to family violence was commonamong youth from all provinces, it was found to behighest among those from the Northern Cape(33%), North West (27%), and Mpumalanga (26%).

Arguments were also a common occurrence in thehomes of these young people (Figure 3), and wouldoften lead to physical altercations. One in ten (12%)respondents indicated that their family membersoften became physical when they were angry witheach other. These findings are again indicative ofthe violent nature of family arguments and thetendency to resort to physical violence in anattempt to resolve family conflicts.

When participants were asked at what age they firstwitnessed family members intentionally hurting

Figure 1: Sample by province (n=4,409)

Figure 2: Sample by area classification

Female youth (51%) and those between the ages of15 and 20 years (67%) constituted the greater partof the study sample. Black youth accounted formore than three quarters (83%) of the respondents,while coloured (8%), white (7%) and Indian (2%)participants constituted the remaining 17% of thesample. The sample consisted primarily of youngpeople from rural areas (52%) while fewerrespondents were recruited from urban (39%) andmetropolitan (9%) areas (Figure 2).

At the time of the study, three quarters of the youth(76%) were still attending school.

Fear and loathing in the homeSouth African society has been described as “veryviolent”.3 Many of the youth surveyed were exposedto violence within their homes, both as witnessesand direct victims, indicating that this violence

0

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SA CRIME QUARTERLY No 16 JUNE 2006 9LEOSCHUT

each other, nearly one in four (24%) had first beena witness to family violence between the ages of 6and 10, while more than two fifths (46%) werebetween 11 and 15 years (Figure 4).

These findings suggest that South African youth areoften exposed to violence in their homes at an earlyage. And when children and young people areexposed to violence during their formative years, itimpacts negatively on their developmentalpathways. The physical and psychological

implications can be far-reaching: low self esteem,anxiety, depression, suicidal notions, and anincreased likelihood of becoming involved withdelinquent peers and activities.4 Youth who witnessacts of violence in their homes are also more likelyto encounter difficulties at school and often struggleto control their anger.5

Besides witnessing family violence, South Africanyouth are also direct victims of violence in theirhomes. More than a quarter (27%) of the youngpeople surveyed reported that they had been caned,spanked or hit by their parents or caregivers fortheir wrongdoings. This study lends support toprevious research studies that have found that eventhough corporal punishment has been abolished inschools, it continues to be a socially sanctionedmeans of effecting discipline within South Africanhomes.6 Girls (29%) reported slightly higher rates ofphysical punishment than boys (26%).

On the whole, these findings reflect the violentnature of the home environments in which manychildren and young people live. The legacy ofapartheid has given rise to a situation in whichmany South African families consider physicalviolence as a socially acceptable means ofproblem-solving within the home.7 Thus, as evidentin this study, violence in the home has become thenorm rather than the exception for many youth inSouth Africa.

Figure 3: Exposure among youth and children to family violence

Figure 4: Age at which respondents first witnessed family violence

1009080706050403020100

Parents/caregivers cane, spank/hit them(n=4,399)

Family argues a lot (n=4,402)

Been hurt/seen family members intentionallyhurting each other (n=4,396)

Family members sometimes hit each other(n=4,402)

27

27

22

12

%

1-5 years 6-10 years

16-20 years <20 years

11-15 years

25%

46%

24%

3%2%

likely to report multiple victimisations than thosewho were not spanked. Even those who reportedthat they were only occasionally caned for theirwrongdoings were more likely to report multiplevictimisations than those who were not caned.

Needed: non-violent familiesThese findings were statistically very significant(p=0.000), and suggest that young people who areexposed to various forms of family violence both aswitnesses and direct victims are more vulnerable tocriminal victimisation. Particularly concerning isthat family violence exposure heightens thesusceptibility of young people to violent crimessuch as assaults and robberies.

The family is the primary socialising agent wherechildren are taught about acceptable andunacceptable behaviour. Children who arecontinuously exposed to violence within the home,as is the case with the young people surveyed inthis study, come to perceive violence as anappropriate means of conflict resolution andproblem-solving technique. These findings point tothe need for targeted interventions to raiseawareness about appropriate conflict resolutiontechniques and alternative methods of discipline,particularly aimed at families since they constitutethe primary role models for children and youth.

Youth who are victimised generally seek protectionand support from their parents or other adults intheir households.9 However, when domesticviolence is a regular occurrence, as experienced bythese young people, adult family members areunable to adequately meet the needs of these youthbecause they themselves are caught up in cycles ofviolence.

The subsequent lack of parental support is an issueof grave concern, because many South Africanyouth do not have access to support systemsoutside of their families10 and thus rely on theirparents/caregivers for emotional support followingtraumatic events. These findings thus call for theimplementation of psycho-social support structuresto be made available to youth outside of theirhomes, given the high rates of family violence inSouth Africa.

SA CRIME QUARTERLY No 16 JUNE 200610 LEOSCHUT

This issue is of particular concern since youngpeople are primarily socialised within the home.When their role models behave violently, theseyouth are likely to regard violence as anacceptable means of problem-solving, and employthese techniques when they need to resolveconflicts.

Violence breeds vulnerabilityMcCloskey, Figueredo and Koss maintain thatyouth who live in homes in which they areexposed to violence on a daily basis are morevulnerable than those not exposed to such ascenario, and hence are more likely to fall victimto crime.8 This tendency was also reflected in theNational Youth Victimisation data. Young peoplewho were raised in antagonistic householdsexperienced higher rates of criminal victimisationthan those not raised in such environments.

A statistically significant relationship was foundbetween the participants who reported exposure toviolence in their homes and those who had in factbeen victimised. Respondents who reported thattheir families argued a lot, often lost their tempers,and became physical with one another when theywere angry, reported significantly highervictimisation rates for most of the crimes exploredin this study than those who were not exposed tosuch violence in their homes (p<0.001). Thosewho witnessed family members intentionallyhurting one another were also significantly morelikely to have been criminally victimised.

Exposure to family violence not only makes youngpeople more vulnerable to criminal victimisation,but also impacts on the number of victimisationsthat they are likely to experience. Young peoplewho had experienced repeat victimisations weremore likely to report exposure to violence withintheir families. These participants were more likelyto report that their families argued a lot, often losttheir tempers, and sometimes hit each other whenthey became angry.

There was also a strong relationship betweenphysical punishment and repeat victimisations. Theyouth who reported that they were caned orspanked at home for their wrongdoings were more


Needed: safe spacesThe data also suggest that South African youth havevery few safe spaces where they are not at risk ofbeing victimised. The widespread incidence ofviolence within these respondents’ homes haveserious implications for their psychological,physical and educational well-being. The creationof safe spaces for South African youth is a matterthat needs urgent attention. The development ofrecreational and other social groupings andactivities can provide these much needed safespaces.

Taking children’s rights seriouslyFamily violence exposure violates the rights ofchildren to a life free from violence as stated inArticle 19 of the Convention on the Rights of theChild (CRC),11 that protects children from allviolence including physical and psychologicalforms of violence.12 In ratifying the Convention,South Africa has committed itself to ensuring thesafety and well-being of all children in their homesand broader communities in which they live.According to the Convention, government partiesare also responsible for ensuring that children areprovided with the protection and care required fortheir well-being. However, this right has clearlybeen violated many times over.

These results are significant since they provideinsight into one of the ways in which youth inSouth Africa are victimised. The study reveals theviolent nature of the social environments in whichmany South African youth live and how this makesthem more likely to experience criminalvictimisation. However, a more comprehensiveunderstanding of the factors influencing youthvictimisation is crucial for advocating for morerelevant and targeted youth policy that will reducethe specific threats facing South African youth.

Endnotes1 L Leoschut & P Burton, How Rich the Rewards: Results

of the 2005 National Youth Victimisation Study, CapeTown, Centre for Justice and Crime Prevention, May2006.

2 Unless indicated to the contrary in the text, the term ‘family violence’ is used here to denote all forms ofviolence involving members of the same family thatusually occur in the home environment.

3 R Jewkes, J Levin & L Penn-Kekana, Risk factors for domestic violence: Findings from a South Africancross-sectional study, Social Science & Medicine 55,pp. 1603-1617, 2002.

4 E Somer & A Braunstein, Are Children Exposed to Inter-parental Violence being Psychologically Maltreated?Aggression and Violent Behaviour, 4(4), pp. 449-456,1999.

5 Ibid.6 U Soneson, Ending Corporal Punishment of Children in

South Africa, Save the Children Sweden, Pretoria, May2005.

7 Jewkes, Levin & Penn-Kekana, op cit.8 LA McCloskey, AJ Figueredo & MP Koss, The Effects of

Systemic Family Violence on Children’s Mental Health,Child Development, 66, pp. 1239-1261, 1995.

9 RT Muller, AE Goebel-Fabbri, T Diamond & D Dinklage, Social support and the relationship between family and community violence exposure andpsychopathology among high risk adolescents, ChildAbuse & Neglect, 24(4), pp. 449-464, 2000.

10 Leoschut & Burton, op cit.11 United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child,

Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights,2006, <http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/k2crc.htm>.

12 Soneson, op cit.

LEOSCHUT


In 2005, the Community Law Centre at theUniversity of the Western Cape commissioned a‘child consultation study’ around the issue of

children being used by adults to commit crime. Thestudy was part of a broader programme, ‘Towardsthe Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour’(TECL), a technical assistance project established bythe International Labour Organisation (ILO) insupport of the Department of Labour that seeks toeliminate children’s engagement in the worst formsof child labour.

The International Labour Organisation Convention182 of 1999 identifies “the use, procuring or offeringof a child for illicit activities, in particular for theproduction and trafficking of drugs as defined in therelevant international treaties” as one of the worstforms of child labour.1 In addition, the commercialsexual exploitation of children, the trafficking ofchildren, and work that is likely to harm the health,safety or morals of children are also consideredamongst these ‘worst forms’ of child labour.

This Convention was ratified by South Africa in2000. South Africa has also ratified the ILOConvention on Minimum Age for Admission to

Employment (1973), and, based on bothconventions, has developed the Child LabourAction Programme (CLAP), which has beenprovisionally approved by government. The TECLprogramme commissioned the investigation anddesign of three pilot projects, aimed at addressingthe worst forms of child labour in South Africa.These are: • commercial sexual exploitation of children and

child trafficking; • the delivery of water by children to households

far away from safe sources of water; and• children engaged by adults in the commission of

offences.

The acronym CUBAC was coined by theCommunity Law Centre as an abbreviation for theterm ‘children used by adults to commit crime’, andthis pilot project will seek to develop anintervention strategy which is to be implementedand tested in Mitchells Plain and Mamelodi in2006/07.

One of the activities undertaken in preparation forthe pilot project was a Child Consultation Study.2

This study sought to obtain information about the

Cheryl FrankInstitute for Security [email protected]

ABUSE OF ADIFFERENT KIND

Adults using childrento commit crime

In terms of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention 182 of 1999, adults using children to

commit criminal offences is considered to be one of the worst forms of child labour. Through an ILO and

Department of Labour programme focusing on the elimination of the worst forms of child labour in South

Africa, a study was undertaken to explore this issue, and engaged 541 children in consultation. The results of

the study are discussed, and the value that such studies hold for crime analysis is briefly considered.

experiences and opinions of children in relation tothis phenomenon, in order that appropriateintervention strategies could be developed. Thisarticle summarises the key findings of the study, andbriefly considers some of the issues that haveemerged.

Child participation methodologyEngaging children in ‘participation’ or ‘consultation’is motivated primarily by Articles 12 and 13 of theConvention on the Rights of the Child (CRC),3 whichhave the intention of ensuring that children areafforded a direct stake in all processes that relate tothem. The Convention makes the following expressprovisions: • State parties shall assure to the child who is

capable of forming his or her own views the rightto express those views freely in all mattersaffecting the child, the views of the child beinggiven due weight in accordance with the age andmaturity of the child.4

• For this purpose, the child shall in particular be provided the opportunity to be heard in anyjudicial and administrative proceedings affectingthe child, either directly, or through arepresentative or an appropriate body, in amanner consistent with the procedural rules ofnational law.5

• The child shall have the right of freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom toseek, receive and impart information and ideas ofall kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, inwriting or in print, in the form of art, or throughany other media of the child’s choice.6

As may be noted from these provisions, the idealsituation is for children to be consulted in relationto all processes, programmes, policies and decisionsthat may affect them. There is much debate in thechildren’s rights arena about how to ensure thatchild participation actually happens, and thepurposes that it may fulfil.

It is clear that there are varying degrees ofparticipation that children may be engaged in, somewhere children may only be marginally involved(such as a once-off study), and others wherechildren are engaged in a deep and ongoing processof discussion and debate (through structures created

SA CRIME QUARTERLY No 16 JUNE 200614 FRANK

for this purpose). The primary debate amongstchildren’s rights activists relates to how suchparticipation may be given respect and meaning,rather than become a token offering by adults, whocontinue to dominate processes and agendas.7

It should be noted from the outset that there areconsiderable differences between a situation wherechildren are simply being used as research subjects;and one where they are engaged in a participationor consultation process. In an authentic childparticipation process the views, experiences andopinions of children are paramount, and these arethe direct object of interest.

When children are used as research subjects orrespondents, they are seen as a means to theinformation-gathering process, thought to berelevant by adults. This distinction is bothphilosophical and practical, and is the mostfundamental issue that should be addressed beforeany children are engaged in participation.

The CUBAC child consultation studyA total of 541 children were engaged in thisconsultation process. This number included 420children who were awaiting trial in Secure CareFacilities (SCFs) and 121 secondary schoolchildren. Children were accessed in five SCFs (inGauteng and in the Western Cape), and onesecondary school in Gauteng. Forty-one focusgroups were held, each involving an average of 14participants.

The average age of the children in the sample was16 years. A total of 492 males (91%) and 49females (9%) participated in the focus groupdiscussions. The females were all from thesecondary school group.

Given that the intention of the research was childconsultation, the substance of group discussionsfocused on obtaining the opinions and views ofchildren on this issue, rather than on facts relatingto their individual experiences. This is particularlyimportant to note, given that the nature of the studydid not lend itself to the direct questioning ofchildren about the prevalence of the problem, norabout the impact on them personally.


One of the issues emerging from these focus groupsrelated to children’s engagement in general economicactivity and how they used the money earned. Twothirds (67%) of the total group indicated that they hadin the past engaged in some activity that earned themmoney. Nearly a third (33%) of the total group statedthat they had never earned money on their own, andthat they relied on their caregivers for money.

Just over 30% of the total group, and 38% of thechildren from the SCF group, reported engaging inillicit activities to obtain money. In contrast, only2.5% of the school group reported engaging in illicitactivities to earn money.

The key discussions, however, related to howchildren get involved in crime and, in particular, therole of adults in this process.

How children get involved in crimePrior to asking children about their views relating toCUBAC, the researchers explored their views andbeliefs about how children get involved in crime inthe first place. The following issues were raised bythe groups, and are discussed in order of howfrequently they were noted within the sample of 41focus groups.

Factors at home

Overwhelmingly, the groups stated that factors athome were the cause of children getting involved incrime, and noted things such as poverty in families,parenting and care of children, and familyrelationships. These issues were raised by 33 of the41 groups. Children said the following:

Children come from a hard environment, theyhave a poor family.

Your mother may be abusing you and youdon’t know what to do.

I had problems with my family and theychased me away.

Peer pressure and the influence of friends

This was the second most common factor noted bychildren as influencing children’s involvement in

crime (in 30 of the 41 groups). The participantsdescribed the influence of their peers as subtle andnuanced; it is not simply a question of friendsactively pressuring children into criminal behaviour.Many children are slowly drawn into the culture ofthe peer group, often because they aspire to havingsimilar possessions as those of the peer group.Examples of children’s responses included:

You just start hanging around with otherpeople who do bad things. It happens fromthere.

You want to please friends. You want to bepart of everyone.

You want to impress friends and wear labelclothing.

The use of drugs and alcohol

The use of drugs and alcohol, and particularlyaddiction to these substances, emerged as asignificant theme throughout the study. This wasraised as the third set of reasons for childrenbecoming engaged in crime for the first time (by 29of the 41 groups). The influence of drugs especiallywas spoken about with a sense of desperation.Children described the drugs as ‘making’ childrencommit crime. They noted:

Drugs and Tik make you crazy. Once youstart, you must have more.

You smoke mandrax and Tik and start goingwith the wrong friends, you become skelm(sneaky).

The influence of gangs

This was noted as the fourth set of factors (raised by13 of the 41 groups) having an influence on childrencommitting crimes for the first time. This was mostprominently noted by the groups in the WesternCape, and to some extent in the group of schoolchildren. Children described gangs as helping todefine their aspirations: children observe whatgangsters have and how they are perceived by thecommunity, and aspire to the same things. Childrensaid:

FRANK


such as money (29 groups), drugs (21 groups), guns(6 groups) and clothes. In 14 groups, recognition,esteem, acknowledgement and respect were notedas a reward offered.

The issue of drugs in particular emerged throughoutthis study as a primary means by which adultsengaged children in crime. Children often said thatgetting money was related to getting drugs, in orderto feed what they described as an ‘addiction’.Fifteen of the groups described how adultsdeliberately got children addicted to drugs so thatthese children could become easy targets for use incriminal activities at a later stage.

Using physical violence and threats of violence

Twenty-seven of the 41 focus groups noted the useof physical violence and the threat of physicalviolence as a means by which adults coercedchildren into committing crimes. In exploring thenature of violence and threats used, nine groupsspoke of actual beatings and abuse of children, andone of these groups mentioned rape. Fourteengroups identified threats of violence being used tocoerce children to commit crime, with five of thesegroups specifically noting threats of death, madewith a weapon such as a gun or knife. Two groupsused terms such as ‘torture’ and ‘bullying’ todescribe children’s experience.

At least six groups described adults engagingchildren in criminal conduct as a process ofdeception. Primarily, this was described as aprocess where adults would, over time, providechildren with things such as money, drugs, clothesand other items. At a later stage they would thenclaim that ‘these things cost money’ and request therepayment of the ‘debt’ in the form of criminalactivities.

Family influence

Twenty-four of the 41 groups described in somedetail other behaviour of adults that resulted inchildren becoming involved in crime. In most casesthis related to the experiences of children in theirfamilies, and actions of family members that weredescribed as ‘pushing’ children to commit offences.These were:

Growing up in gangster areas, you getinvolved. You want to be like them.

The gang is attractive with its gold and rings,and there are things that you must do to getthat.

How adults are involved in child crimeChildren were asked several questions thatattempted to elicit whether and how adults engagechildren in crime. All 41 focus groups providedinformation that indicated that adults engagingchildren in criminal activities is a commonphenomenon, and provided clear and directexamples of how adults are involved when childrencommit crime.

Adult involvement: direct and indirect

Overall, children indicated that adults involvedchildren in crime through direct and indirect means.The direct involvement of children by adults incrime (noted by 30 of the 41 groups) was describedas engaging children as accomplices in thecommission of crimes. This included committingcrimes together, children acting as look-outs, adultstaking children to crime scenes where the childrenwere then expected to commit crime, adultsoverseeing the commission of the crime, and adultspaying children for the commission of crime. Thisalso involved using children to sell drugs.

In 32 of the 41 groups children also described howadults were indirectly involved in engaging childrenin criminal activities. This would include buyingstolen goods, showing children how to commitcrime, and providing the means to do so (such asguns). At another level, adults made it known tochildren that it was easy to commit crime; showedthem the kinds of rewards that could be obtained;and gave them an overall impression of crime asattractive and positive.

Offering rewards or ‘bribes’

All 41 groups identified rewards as a means throughwhich adults engaged children in crime. The keyissue related to the nature of the reward that wasoffered, in many cases the children termed these as‘bribes’. All the groups identified material rewards

SA CRIME QUARTERLY No 16 JUNE 2006 17FRANK

• home circumstances, with poverty, neglect and abuse cited as the most critical of theseinfluences;

• children receiving no guidance or examples of appropriate behaviour;

• families ignoring or excusing criminal behaviour;• families making children feel guilty for

expressing basic needs.

Mothers don’t know it, but they causechildren to commit crime when they say,‘don’t sit around, go and work for money’.

Coercion or willing participation?In exploring whether children are coerced intocrime, or whether they are willing participants, thegroups provided responses to indicate that childrenwere often threatened and coerced into committingcrimes (as was noted earlier, 27 of the 41 groupsprovided information as to the coercive nature ofthis). However, the groups also noted that, equally,children were making decisions as to whether theyshould commit crime. Thirty-nine of the groupsstated that children themselves often made decisionsto commit crime, and that this often related to thenature of the reward expected.

Addressing the problemThe overwhelming majority of groups agreed thatadults engaging children in crime was problematic,and that something needed to be done to addressthe situation.

It is clear that children need help for a number ofreasons: those who have dropped out of school andhave no opportunities; those addicted to drugs; andthose children subjected to coercion by adults.Some of the responses indicated a somewhatfatalistic position, namely that whatever help wasgiven would not make a difference and that a life ofcrime was somehow inevitable.

Responses to the question of what should be doneto help children ranged from constructive options,such as the importance of returning to school, to thexenophobic: “get the Nigerians out of the country”.The majority of suggestions, however, emphasised

education, development, social work services, sportand recreation, and employment.

Based on the information provided, it seems clearthat adults engaging children in crime was commonknowledge, or commonly experienced, among thechild respondents. The study also found that ofthose respondents in the SCF group on whominformation was available through self-reporting(N=389), a total of 182 (47%) were co-accusedwith adults, while 207 (53%) reported beingcharged on their own.

The experiences described by children indicate thatcriminal justice and crime prevention efforts needto be far more vigilant to the question of adultinvolvement in crime with children. How thecriminal justice system deals with the issue warrantsparticular attention.

The Child Justice Bill will respond to the issue ofchild offending, and provide for systems to dealwith the child’s involvement in crime. However, theact of adults engaging children in illicit activities isnot specifically criminalised in South African law.

Sloth-Nielsen comments that while the commonlaw provisions for incitement and conspiracy doexist, these may be inadequate in dealing with theadults who engage children in crime. She arguesthat instituting prosecutions against adults may, infact, undermine the overall goal of keeping childrenaway from criminal proceedings, and states that thecreation of a new statutory offence, in line withproposals already made by the South African LawReform Commission in relation to the Child JusticeBill, may be preferable.8

Rewards and threatsThe results of the study indicate children’sengagement by adults in crime is not primarily theresult of violent or threatening coercion by adults(although this too is common). The respondentsindicated that children are engaged in crime byadults most often through the promise of a range ofdifferent rewards.

The respondents described rewards of both atangible and intangible nature. Tangible rewards

problems, child participation studies may be hugelyinappropriate given the ethics of engaging childrenas subjects; and the kinds of risks that may relate tochildren acting as informers.

Child participation studies may, however, beenormously beneficial in the development ofprevention, early intervention and reintegrationprogrammes. From both a child rights andprogramme development perspective, theinvolvement of children in the construction ofprogrammes intended for their benefit has beennoted to be a good practice. More important,however, is that these studies offer glimpses into thelives of children that may otherwise be impossibleto imagine.

Endnotes1 International Labour Organisation Convention on the

Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour, No.182, 1999.

2 C Frank and L Muntingh, Children Used by Adults to Commit Crime (CUBAC): Children’s Perceptions,International Labour Organisation, 2005.

3 United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, 20 November 1989.

4 Article 12 (1), Convention on the Rights of the Child.5 Article 12 (2), Convention on the Rights of the Child.6 Article 13, Convention on the Rights of the Child.7 R Hart, Children’s Participation: From Tokenism to

Citizenship, Innocenti Digest No. 4, UNICEF, 1992. 8 J Sloth-Nielsen, Let not the Sins of the Fathers…

Investigating the Child Labour/Juvenile JusticeIntersection, 4th World Congress on the Rights ofChildren and Youth, Cape Town, March 2005.


included money, drugs, clothes and weapons, whileintangible rewards such as praise, acknowledgement,respect and recognition were noted. The nature ofthe rewards described by the respondents offers somevaluable clues as to how children are motivated, andallows crime prevention practitioners to considerhow such rewards may be replaced or duplicated inthe context of programme interventions.

The use of violence, threats and coercion by adultsalso needs to be noted. The use of such strategies byadults indicates that some children may be atconsiderable risk of violence or physical harm, andthat prevention and early intervention strategies needto be cognisant of these risks, and pragmatic inrelation to how children should respond to them.

Children, crime and agencyChildren themselves have, throughout the study,indicated that far from simply being the victims ofadults, children often make direct decisions abouttheir involvement in crime. These decisions seem tobe motivated by quite logical concerns, based onchildren’s environment and personal circumstances.As such, they warrant far greater attention from crimeprevention practitioners than has previously beengiven.

The role of drugs and alcoholA theme that emerged throughout this study was therole of drugs and alcohol as a factor in influencingchildren to engage in crime with adults. Childrenspoke of drugs such as mandrax, tik and heroin asforcing them into relationships that would ensure thatthey had continued access to these substances.Children’s description of adult involvement in thisindicates that substance abuse in particular has thepotential to significantly increase children’s risklevels in relation to crime.

Can child participation help the study of crime? This research raises some questions about the valuethat child participation or consultation holds for thestudy of crime. Child participation is, in its purestform, about the views, opinions, impressions andrecommendations of children and does not directlyseek to create new data about crime problems.Especially when one seeks to obtain informationabout the nature, extent and impact of crime


The idea of human beings being traded,exploited and abused challenges our verynotion of civilisation and demands a

response from governments, non-governmentalorganisations, law enforcement agencies and socialservice support structures. Yet human trafficking is aslippery concept, something that is hard to pindown and come to grips with. It is frequentlyconfused in the media with human smuggling,which involves assisting people to illegally crossborders, often for exorbitant fees. Trafficking is alsosometimes used as a blanket term for the sexualexploitation of women and children that constitutesmuch of the writing about this phenomenon.

This article will evaluate national and internationalresearch efforts to understand the nature andpatterns of human trafficking, and will suggest thatmore rigorous quantitative research is not onlypossible, but essential to dealing effectively with theproblem. The article argues that the numbers of

trafficking victims quoted by NGOs and governmentstend to be based on estimates that are frequentlyinflated. Such overestimations, while successful incapturing public attention and generating moraloutrage, do not provide a sound basis for policymaking and resource allocation. Furthermore, it isvital for law enforcement agencies to have a clearunderstanding of what practices constitute trafficking,in order to successfully identify, investigate andprosecute such cases. Without a clear definition andunderstanding of what needs to be prevented andcontrolled, an effective response is impossible.

Concerns about trafficking: a backgroundIt is important at the outset to consider the origins ofinternational actions dealing with the problem ofhuman trafficking. According to sex worker rightsactivist, Jo Doezema, concern about the trafficking(particularly of women and children) was born out ofthe early social purity movement which developedthe stereotype of “white adolescent girls who were

Chandré GouldInstitute for Security [email protected]

CHEAP LIVES

Countering humantrafficking:considerations andconstraints

In May 2006 the South African Law Reform Commission released a discussion paper and draft legislation on

human trafficking for public comment by the end of June this year. In order to successfully identify, investigate

and prosecute cases of trafficking, law enforcement agencies need a clear understanding of what constitutes

trafficking. But human trafficking is a slippery concept – frequently confused with human smuggling or used as

a blanket term for the sexual exploitation of women and children. In evaluating national and international

research on the issue, this article finds that understanding the extent and nature of the problem is

complicated, not only by contending definitions, but also by the lack of representative data about trafficking

nationally and internationally.

drugged and abducted by sinister immigrantprocurers, waking up to find themselves captive insome infernal foreign brothel, where they weresubject to the pornographic whims of sadistic,non-white pimps and brothel masters.”1 Doezemaargues that research done at the time establishedthat most of the alleged trafficking victims were infact sex workers who had migrated in search ofbetter opportunities.

Nevertheless, the result of the successful campaignof the social purity movement was twointernational instruments: The InternationalAgreement for the Suppression of the White SlaveTrade, Paris (1904) and the InternationalConvention for the Suppression of the White SlaveTraffic (1910). This was followed by the adoptionof two Conventions by the League of Nations: TheInternational Convention to Combat the Traffic inWomen and Children (1921) and the InternationalConvention for the Suppression of the Traffic inWomen of Full Age (1933).2

Eleven years later the United Nations adopted theConvention for the Suppression of the Traffic inPersons and the Exploitation of the Prostitution ofOthers (which combined and replaced earlieragreements). The 1949 Convention conflatedtrafficking and prostitution, stating that“prostitution … and the traffic in persons for thepurposes of prostitution are incompatible with thedignity and worth of the human person.”3

Doezema notes that after 1949 internationalconcern about trafficking abated until the mid-1980s when feminist concerns about sex tourismbrought it back onto the agenda.

Doezema and Alison Murray documented thepolitical processes leading up to the adoption ofthe more recent Protocol to Prevent, Suppress andPunish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Womenand Children, Supplementing the United NationsConvention Against Organised Crime (hereafterreferred to as the Palermo Protocol).4 They notethat organisations such as the Coalition Against theTrafficking of Women (CATW) played a significantrole in determining the nature and scope of thedefinition of trafficking that was ultimatelyadopted. This definition reads as follows:

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(a) “Trafficking in persons” shall mean the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouringor receipt of persons, by means of the threat oruse of force or other forms of coercion, ofabduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse ofpower or of a position of vulnerability or of thegiving or receiving of payments or benefits toachieve the consent of a person having controlover another person, for the purposes ofexploitation. Exploitation shall include, at aminimum, the exploitation of the prostitution ofothers or other forms of sexual exploitation,forced labour or services, slavery or practicessimilar to slavery, servitude or the removal oforgans;

(b) The consent of a victim of trafficking in persons to the intended exploitation set forth insubparagraph (a) of this article shall be irrelevantwhere any of the means set forth insubparagraph (a) have been used;

(c) The recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of a child for the purposeof exploitation shall be considered “trafficking inpersons” even if this does not involve any of themeans set forth in subparagraph (a) of thisarticle;

(d) “Child” shall mean any person under eighteen years of age.5

The emphasis on sexual exploitation and the focuson women and children (in the title) are indicationsof the influence exerted by lobbying groups.

Defining what it is we want to controlThe Palermo Protocol, exists (as its name suggests)within the context of the effort to curb and prosecuteorganised crime. The definition contained in theProtocol is extremely broad, and purposefully so. Itseeks to provide states that use it in the formulationof domestic legislation with legal ammunition toprosecute all those involved in the process ofrecruiting individuals and transferring them intosituations of extreme exploitation.

Yet, ironically, in the effort to cast the net widelyenough to capture all the perpetrators in the chain ofdeception and abuse, the definition of traffickingbecomes so broad as to include almost any actthrough which an individual ends up in an

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SA CRIME QUARTERLY No 16 JUNE 2006 21GOULD

exploitative situation. Indeed, there is not evenagreement about what constitutes exploitation and acommonsense interpretation of the concept usuallyprevails.

Trying to establish exactly what it is that we want tocontrol is muddied by the politics of sex, whichdivides organisations acting in support of women’srights into two camps. Simply put, those representedby organisations such as the Coalition AgainstTrafficking in Women (CATW) define prostitution assexual exploitation regardless of whether womenwho engage in prostitution do so willingly, orthrough coercion. Proponents of this position holdthat prostitution is a violation of women’s rights andthat any woman who apparently willingly engages inprostitution is merely a victim of male domination.

Researchers who share this analysis purposefully andconsciously conflate prostitution and trafficking,arguing that trafficking cannot be separated fromprostitution. They reject “arguments that redefine andseek to legitimate prostitution as ‘sex work’”.6 Manyof the research reports on human trafficking writtenby supporters of this point of view argue that thetrade in women and children is not only huge, butgrowing. They point to the demand for prostitutesand the allegedly large profits that can be derivedfrom the trade as causal factors of trafficking.7

On the other side of the ideological divide are thosegroups and organisations representing the rights ofsex workers. Organisations such as the Network ofSex Work Projects (NSWP) and the Global AllianceAgainst Trafficking in Women (GAATW) recognisethat women may choose to sell sex, and argue thatthis is a legitimate choice and one that should notprevent the women who make this choice frombeing protected against exploitation and violence.

This ideological divide may seem irrelevant to theimportant task of preventing trafficking fromoccurring; however, that is not the case. Theconfusion of definitions presents researchers and lawenforcement officials alike with an enormouschallenge. Where are we to focus our attention?How are we to count the number of affected people?How do police officers distinguish between self-identified sex workers who have been abused, raped

or exploited, and victims of trafficking? Whoqualifies for victim support?

The answers to these questions are not clear and thedebate about where we draw the lines indistinguishing trafficking from other forms of abuseand exploitation has to be engaged with moreactively if we are to put in place effective policies toassist victims, and laws to prosecute perpetrators.

Kauko Aromaa correctly identifies that uniformdefinitions and accurate measurements of traffickingare essential since “any reallocation of control orsupport resources is done in the face of competitionwhere the ‘larger’ social problem receives more thanthe ‘smaller’ one.”8 He notes the enormousdifficulties associated with quantifying somethingthat is so difficult to define: “[T]he situation where acrime is characterised by an absence of the unity oftime, place, perpetrator and activity makes thecounting exercise particularly demanding [as in thecase of trafficking].”9 Not only do these factorshinder quantification of the problem of trafficking,they also hinder law enforcement.

Aromaa notes that there is little experience of howto apply legal trafficking provisions. He reports on anumber of informal interviews conducted withFinnish law enforcement officials to gather theirviews, during which one official said that thebroadness of the definition meant that at leastsomething could be pinned on traffickers, whileothers pointed to the difficulties in locating andidentifying victims.

In one interview a law enforcement official raisedthe problem that victims of trafficking do not wish tobe regarded as such – a point that Kauko later picksup again in relation to victim assistance, saying thatthe reluctance of ‘victims’ to identify themselves assuch hampers investigations which invariably rely onvictim statements. He quotes the police officersaying:

It is very hard to identify a victim who doesnot co-operate, or as often happens, denieshis/her victim status, does not accept ourview of him/her as a potential or real victim.Then he/she has no reason to co-operate, on

the contrary, he/she will try to escape us whoare trying to help him/her. It is also not clearthat if the victim’s role is not beneficial to thepresumed victim he/she will have no reasonto come to us – all we can do is sendhim/her back and he/she knows this. Theonly way to improve this situation could be ifwe would adopt a solution where the victimstatus is accompanied by some significantbenefits – such as a permit to stay in thecountry, witness protection schemes, etc.10

What is not clear is why, when so-called victims donot wish to be defined as such, there is an insistencethat they should be. This kind of thinking ispervasive in the anti-trafficking movement andappears to be a consequence of the view that nowoman would choose to do sex work and that allsex workers are by definition exploited. In fact,Kauko and the law enforcement official he quotesgo even further, suggesting that some inducementshould be offered to supposed victims to definethemselves as such, so that a prosecution canfollow.

However, this suggestion could have dangerousconsequences. Not only could it lead to theexploitation of a vulnerable person by lawenforcement agencies to show that they are activelypursuing so-called traffickers, but it places aresource burden on the state which few countriesoutside the developed world could afford.

Perhaps a more appropriate definition of traffickingfor purposes of sexual exploitation, and one thatwould prevent self-identified migrant sex workersfrom being identified as victims of trafficking, is thatadopted by the Foundation Against Trafficking inWomen (STV), a Netherlands-based organisation.They hold that:

Trafficking [can be defined] as the process inwhich migrant women are brought intoprostitution through the use of coercion,deceit, abuse or violence and in which theyare denied fundamental human rights andfreedoms such as the right to decide to workas a prostitute or not, the right to decide onthe conditions of work, the right to enter and

SA CRIME QUARTERLY No 16 JUNE 200622 GOULD

leave the sex industry, the right to refusecertain customers, the right to refuse certainsexual acts, the right of freedom ofmovement, the right not to be exploited, andso forth. If trafficking is defined in a broadersense it can apply not only to prostitution,but also to other forms of labour…11

Participants in a workshop held in February 2006by the Institute for Security Studies suggested thatthe inability (physical or material) of a victim toremove him/herself from a situation of exploitationshould be identified as a feature of trafficking inaddition to coercion, deception and force, whichare features of the recruitment process. Narrowingthe definition in this way may facilitate lawenforcement and assist in the identification ofvictims.

The ideological divide in relation to prostitution andsexual exploitation is set to remain. In themeantime, there is little point in South Africansestablishing new laws and dedicating resources tocombating trafficking until there is clear agreementabout what it is that needs to be prevented, stoppedand controlled.

Assessing research on traffickingUnderstanding the extent and nature of the problemof trafficking is complicated, not only by contendingdefinitions, but also by the fact that there is so littlecredible, representative data about traffickingnationally and internationally. Much of the literaturelaments the absence of data about the prevalence oftrafficking and yet, reaches the conclusion that it isa ‘growing’ problem. The reason given for theinability of researchers to quantify the problem isthat the industry is hidden and inaccessible. In thesame breath researchers quote one another,claiming that perpetrators are making huge profitsfrom the trafficking industry.

US researcher, Thomas Steinfatt, commentedextensively on this tendency, and consequentlydeveloped a workable methodology to determinethe number of women and children trafficked intothe sex work industry in Cambodia.12 Steinfattstated that “[I]t appears to be common practice instatements about trafficking to claim that estimating


the number of persons trafficked into sexual labouris difficult to impossible, and then to presentunfounded guesses as to these same estimates asthough they were numbers to be relied upon.”13

Steinfatt et al critique the tendency of NGOresearchers to reach estimations of prevalence onthe basis of interviews with so-called experts:

This process of asking people who work foran NGO or governmental agency in aspecific content area how big they think aproblem is, may be likened to asking expertbaseball players of long standing to estimatethe number of persons currently playingbaseball in their country. Being an expert atbaseball does not imply knowledge orcredibility concerning the number ofbaseball players. Without a scientific studyto back up the estimate, players can offer nomore than a wild guess even though theyare quite familiar with the game of baseball,with many other baseball players andmanagers, and with the lore of baseballwhich may contain a ‘number of players’guess that ‘everyone knows is true’. Theaverage of a set of wild guesses is simply anaverage wild guess. It does not take mucheffort to ‘make public’ a wild guess, andthen have a second party refer to this guessas a ‘statistic’, attempting to provide theguess with an aura of credibility.14

The authors argue that the large numbers frequentlyquoted in anti-trafficking literature often serve theinterests of the quoted organisations, those thatbenefit from funding for anti-trafficking work. Theystate that “[I]f persons with a financial stake in theoutcome are allowed to create numbers that affectthe size of these donations, then the recipe andmotivation for cheating have been created.”15

In a 2003 paper, migration experts Loren Landauand Karen Jacobsen considered the methodologicalshortcomings of much of the research on forcedmigration and internally displaced people. Likeresearch on human trafficking, research on forcedmigration is defined by a dual imperative: tounderstand and record the phenomenon and,

perhaps even more importantly, to help the peoplecaught up in these situations. This means that moreoften than not, research reports are aimed atproviding new insights and solutions to policyproblems. This, Landau and Jacobsen argue, placesenormous importance on ensuring that the researchthat is conducted is methodologically sound.

Research that is not methodologically sound notonly brings into question the area of research(which in the case of human trafficking issometimes viewed as research in furtherance ofpolitical agendas rather than a response to a realgrowing problem) but also risks reaching wrongconclusions that in turn will lead to inappropriate,and perhaps harmful, policies.”16

Research into forced migration and research intohuman trafficking are subject to similar constraints.In both cases victims are hard to access andidentify, may speak a language that is not native tothe country in which they end up, and may beinvolved in hidden criminal activity. Althoughthese constraints present researchers with aformidable challenge, particularly when doingquantitative research, they cannot be ignored whendesigning methodologies.

Landau and Jacobsen, somewhat more generouslythan Steinfatt, put the lack of rigour in their fielddown to ‘advocacy research’: “where a researcheralready knows what she wants to see and say, andcomes away from the research having ‘proved’ it.Although those falling into this trap are often wellmeaning, this kind of research risks doing refugeesa disservice and potentially discredits otheracademics working in the field. It encourageswidespread acceptance of unsubstantiated factsthat bolster a sense of permanent crisis anddisaster.”17 This statement could equally be appliedto research on human trafficking.

On substantive issues of methodology, Landau andJacobsen argue that few of the studies on forcedmigration provide a detailed descriptive andcritical account of the methodologies used,moreover, they also use techniques such as‘snowballing’, which, if the intent is to develop arepresentative sample, are flawed.

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SA CRIME QUARTERLY No 16 JUNE 200624 GOULD

there is considerable precedent in this field); anagreed method of gathering and recordinginformation from victims; and a centrallyadministered database. In the long term it is notimpossible to imagine that such a system may act asan early warning system for law enforcementofficials if trends are monitored and regularlyreported on.

The findings reported by Lakzo and Gramegna fromdata collected in the Balkans challengeconventional wisdom about the victims of traffickingand the recruitment process. Given that theassumptions made about causal factors of traffickingin Southern Africa seem to be based on acommonsense understanding of what causesvulnerability, the lessons from the Balkans should betaken seriously.

The findings from the Balkans data analysis showthat:• roughly a third of the identified victims came from

rural areas and most did not classify themselves asvery poor;

• almost half of the recruiters were women; and • 8% of victims had been trafficked previously.

This latter finding suggests that naivete is notnecessarily a factor in causing vulnerability, indeedit suggests agency on behalf of the victim. While thefindings seem to support the notion that mosttrafficking occurs into the sex industry, this is likelyto be biased by the fact that it is ‘easier’ to identifyand find victims in this industry than it is to findvictims in other sectors, because the industry ismonitored by law enforcement officials.

A 2003 report by the International Organisation forMigration (IOM) on the trafficking of women andchildren for purposes of sexual exploitation in Southand Southern Africa states that the push and pullfactors fuelling the trade in women and childreninclude the commoditisation of women, poverty,and, in the case of southern Africa, porous borders.The IOM report notes that the working conditions ofwomen trafficked into the industry are extremelyexploitative and include debt-bondage, longworking hours, a limited right to refuse clients, andremoval of their freedom of movement.21

That is not to say that snowballing – the practice ofidentifying research subjects through consultationwith informants – is not useful or appropriate in manycontexts. It cannot, however, be used as themethodological basis for the development ofrepresentative samples, or as the basis from whichgeneralised conclusions can be drawn – as has beenthe case in much of the reporting on humantrafficking.

Authors Frank Laczko and Marco Gramegna,researchers for the International Organisation forMigration in Geneva, grapple with themethodological challenges of doing research onhuman trafficking in a journal article titled,Developing Better Indicators of Human Trafficking.18

They, like others, note that “despite the growingliterature on human trafficking, much of theinformation on the actual number of personstrafficked is unclear and relatively few studies arebased on extensive research.”19

Laczko and Gramegna note that, while there are anumber of agencies that collect data on victims oftrafficking, this data is seldom systematically analysed.They refer to a 2001 International Organisation onMigration (IOM) project in the Balkans to create adatabase on trafficking. While this would be one wayof creating baseline data from which trends andpatterns could be detected, they identify as a majorconstraint the fact that few governmentssystematically collect data on trafficking. “[I]t is stillcommon in many countries to mingle data relating totrafficking, smuggling and irregular migration.”20

In South Africa combating human trafficking hasbecome a priority for the National ProsecutingAuthority. The IOM and other organisations areproviding law enforcement officials with training inhow to identify and assist victims of trafficking, and anumber of non-governmental organisations provideservices to victims of trafficking.

These factors suggest that the collection andsystematic analysis of data from all these sourcesabout victims of trafficking could considerably aid ourunderstanding of the nature and extent of thephenomenon. Such an exercise would require co-operation between the state and NGOs (for which


Unfortunately it is impossible to know whetherwomen who are not trafficked may be vulnerable tosimilar levels of exploitation; or what the particularfactors are that make some women, who share thesame economic and social situation, morevulnerable to being trafficked than others; orwhether the conditions under which traffickedwomen work in the sex industry differs significantlyfrom those experienced by voluntary sex workers.

A way forward for South AfricaDrawing on the methodologies of authors such asSteinfatt who have managed to find a way ofestimating, within a fair margin of accuracy, thenumber of trafficked persons in the sex workindustry, and repeating such research in SouthAfrica, would contribute baseline data todiscussions about control and prevention.Combining that with qualitative research of inter-governmental organisations (IGOs) and NGOswould provide a depth of understanding about thecharacter of the problem.

Social science researchers could also benefit fromconsidering the methodologies employed by publichealth researchers who have had to grapple withreaching hidden populations. It is vital that, asresearchers who wish to positively assist policymakers, we begin to find ways to gather informationthat can inform resource allocation and victimassistance programmes.

AcknowledgementThis article is based on a research project beingconducted on human trafficking by the Institute forSecurity Studies, and funded by the Belgian Embassyin Pretoria.

Endnotes1 Quoted in J Doezema, Forced to Choose: Beyond the

Voluntary v. Forced Prostitution Dichotomy, in K Kempadoo and J Doezema (eds), Global SexWorkers: Rights, Resistance, Redefinition, Routledge,1998, p 36.

2 Ibid.3 Quoted in Doezema, p 38.4 Ibid.5 Article 3 of the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and

Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women andChildren, Supplementing the United NationsConvention Against Transnational Organised Crime.

6 J Raymond et al, A Comparative Study of Women Trafficked in the Migration Process: Patters, Profilesand Health Consequences of Sexual Exploitation inFive Countries (Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand,Venezuela and the United States), Coalition AgainstTrafficking in Women, 2002, p 3.

7 See for example DM Hughes, The ‘Natasha’ Trade: Transnational Sex Trafficking, National Institute ofJustice Journal, January 2001.

8 K Aromaa, Trafficking in Human Beings: Uniform Definitions for Better Measuring and for EffectiveCounter-Measures, paper presented at the ISPACInternational Conference on Measuring HumanTrafficking – Complexities and Pitfalls, Courmayeur,Mont Blanc, Italy, 2 – 4 December 2005, p 2.

9 Ibid., p 3.10 Ibid., p 5.11 M Wijers, Women, Labor, and Migration: The Position

of Trafficked Women and Strategies for Support, in KKempadoo and J Doezema, Global Sex Workers:Rights, Resistance, Redefinition, Routledge, 1998, p69.

12 Thomas Steinfatt, Simon Baker and Allan Beesey, Measuring the Number of Trafficked Women andChildren in Cambodia: 2002, presented at the HumanRights Challenge of Globalization in Asia-Pacific-US:The Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women andChildren, Globalization Research Centre, Universityof Honolulu, Hawaii, 13 – 15 November 2002.

13 Ibid., p 3.14 Ibid, p 2.15 Ibid, p3.16 K Jacobsen and L Landau, Researching Refugees:

Some Methodological and Ethical Considerations inSocial Science and Forced Migration, ForcedMigration Working Paper Series 2, pp 3 – 4.

17 Ibid., p 4.18 F Laczo and M Gramegna, Developing Better

Indicators of Human Trafficking, Brown Journal ofWorld Affairs, Vol X, Issue 1, Summer/Fall 2003.

19 Ibid., p 180.20 Ibid., p 181.21 Martens, Pieczkowski et al., 2003.

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The South African Constitution guaranteescertain rights for those who are arrested,detained or accused of crimes. Since the end

of apartheid the South African Police Service (SAPS)has committed itself to serving the communitythrough policing that is “conducted in a mannerthat is consistent with human rights and democraticvalues”.1

However, the Sex Worker Education and AdvocacyTaskforce (SWEAT) has found that the police areengaging in unlawful and unconstitutional actswhen arresting sex workers. The rights of sexworkers who are arrested and detained are notupheld and in some cases members of the policeengage in criminal actions themselves, whilesupposedly enforcing the law. Over a number ofyears, sex workers in Cape Town have notifiedSWEAT about such incidents. In addition toresponding to these complaints individually, SWEATanalysed 48 statements received up to the end of2004, to identify common kinds of abuseexperienced at the hands of the police.

‘Sex bribery’, rape and indecent assaultOne in three of the women who made statements toSWEAT described being forced to have sex withpolice officers or knew other sex workers who hadbeen coerced. Women spoke of police officers thatoffered to release them from jail in return for sex:

There were three of us arrested and taken tothe cells. One person was released, when weasked why, the officer indicated that theperson who was released and the other policeofficer were having sex.

Another cop, I don’t know his surname, but Iknow and will always remember his face,always tells me that he will not lock me up ifI sleep with him.

Sometimes they ask for sexual favours in thecells (one policeman will come to the celland choose who he would like to have sexwith, so that he can free them all) and if thatsex worker doesn’t want to do that they allhad to sleep there [in the police cell].

Nicolé FickSex Worker Education and Advocacy Taskforce (SWEAT)[email protected]

ENFORCING FEAR

Police abuse of sexworkers when making arrests

Together with other research (see SA Crime Quarterly No 15 2006), this Cape Town based study shows that

the highest levels of violence against sex workers come from the police. Far from guaranteeing the rights of

the accused, police officers’ actions against sex workers when making an arrest are characterised by criminal

activity including theft, assault and rape. Moreover, the minimum use of force is rarely applied when arresting

sex workers. These findings reflect a worrying lack of respect for the basic human and constitutional rights of

the most vulnerable in South African society.

SA CRIME QUARTERLY No 16 JUNE 200628

In addition to this type of coercion, sex workersalso reported incidents of forced sex acts withpolice officers, either in exchange for not beingarrested or during the process of being arrested:

He was actually sex bribing me so hewon’t lock me up…the cop ordered me togive him a fuck and to suck his colleague.He ask a condom and sex me doggie stylewhile I suck his colleague’s cock. I felt soshit after that…they left me sitting in front[of the police van] and they drop me at theTotal garage...

Suddenly he grabbed me and kissed me onmy mouth and touched me all overincluding my breasts, arms and buttocks. Itried to push him away but he stillcontinued. I said to him please don’t dothis. In the mean time I noticed that hetook his gun off and put it on the desk andhe took a condom from his pocket and hehas pulled my pants down. I told himwhen I do this I always get paid…I toldhim that even when your wife says no it’sno and that I did not like what he wasdoing to me...he unzipped his pants andput on the condom. He made me sit onthe desk and took off my panties and hadsex with me. Afterwards he said he wassorry and that he liked African women likeme. He took the condom off and I gotdressed.

Two sex workers also described incidents ofindecent assault by police officers. In legal termsindecent assault relates to the indecent handlingof a person who is usually, but not always, afemale, including touching the complainant’sprivate parts, lifting up her dress, putting a handup her dress, or caressing her breasts. A sexworker who was arrested describes a clear case ofindecent assault by a police officer:

He pulled my jersey up to see if I had abelt on, touching me…when I asked himto stop he hit me on the back of my headand swore at me.

Physical abuse during an arrestOne in two of the women who made a complaintto SWEAT spoke of being physically assaulted orsprayed with pepper spray by the police, eitherwhile being arrested or during detention. Assault isdefined in South African law as the unlawful andintentional application of force to another person orthe threat of force. Usually the application of forceis of a direct nature – a slap, a punch or a kick.

Section 49 of the Criminal Procedure Act 51 of1977 states that in the event that a suspect resistsarrest or flees, the arresting officer may, “in order toeffect the arrest use such force as may in thecircumstances be reasonably necessary toovercome the resistance or prevent the personconcerned from fleeing”. However, there is also arecommendation, and indeed a legal requirement,that the police use the minimum amount of forcerequired to effect an arrest. It is significant to notethat in reality this is not the case and the minimumuse of force is rarely applied in arresting sexworkers.

Sex workers speak of various physical abuses whenthey are arrested by police officers, including beingbeaten or choked. In 13 of the 48 statements, sexworkers complained of being sprayed with pepperspray. One describes her experience of beingarrested as follows:

A white golf car with three SAPS policeofficers stopped. They told me to get out ofthe car and the client to go. After the clientleft they sprayed me with a spray gun, at thesame time they were kicking me all over mybody as I had fallen down at the time…thetwo were swearing saying: “Jy wil nie hoernie, jou jintoe, jou hoer, slegte goed.” [You mustn’t whore, you hooker, you whore,bad woman]. As I was trying to run theyfollowed me with the golf, I felt that theywanted to knock me with the car with theintention of killing me, I thought they wereplanning to do a hit and run.

In this case the person involved was hospitalisedfor three days after the incident and the doctor onduty encouraged her to make a case against the

FICK

Extortion The dictionary definition of extortion is that itinvolves the use of one’s official position to obtain afee. Five sex workers complained that the policerequired them to pay bribes or very high fines forwhich they got no receipt. They also said policerequired sex workers’ clients to pay fines and thatthey threatened to expose clients to their wives orfamilies if they refused to pay the fine:

He told me the fine is R500 and if I take toolong to get in [the police van] it will beR1,000.

If they caught you with a client, they wantmoney from the client (saying it is his fine sothat he can’t be locked in or they will tell hisfamily) and from the sex worker too…theydon’t ask the same amount all the time; itdepends.

The police also threaten the clients (bysaying they will tell their wives or lay acharge against them) they want R300 –R1,500.

Abuse of municipal by-lawsThe majority of sex workers are targeted through theuse of municipal by-laws, including those againstloitering or loitering with the intent to commitprostitution. The offence of loitering is described inthe Western Cape’s municipal by-law as ensuringthe convenience of persons using streets or publicplaces as follows:

1. (1) No person shall in a street or public place – (a) Run, walk, stand, sit or lie, or(b) Deposit, leave, spill, drop or

place any matter or thing as toobstruct or be likely to obstruct orcause or to be likely to causeinconvenience or danger topersons or other traffic using suchstreet or public place.

(2) Any person running, walking, standing, sitting or lying in a street orpublic place in the manner referred


police. She decided not to follow this advice forfear of further abuse by the police, but she didcome to SWEAT’s offices to make a statement.

The standard police operating procedure for usingpepper spray states that it should be used…• if a suspect is resisting arrest;• for self-protection when a police officer is

attacked;• for crowd management;• inside cells if the safety of the police officer

concerned is threatened.

Sex workers experiences are, however, verydifferent. Statements revealed how police spray sexworkers with pepper spray as they drive past andonce they are confined inside the police van.

Verbal abuseRacism is still an issue that confronts the SAPS.2

Research has shown that police abusedisproportionately affects marginalised andvulnerable groups. A number of the women whomade complaints spoke of racial slurs and reportedthat police officers called them “kaffir” or “swartpoes” when speaking to them. One sex worker saidthe police were:

…calling us jintoes and telling us to “takeour black pussies and sell them in Bellville”.

Sixteen of the women who made complaints spokeof being verbally abused by members of the police.They talked of being called ‘whores’, ‘jintoes’,‘naaiers’ or ‘poes’. One woman spoke of herexperience as follows:

Hy het my lelik gevloek en gesê hy trap mypoes in twee, sodat ek nie meer kan bloeinie…Hulle het my besonderhede gevra…toeek sê ek het Std 9, toe sê hulle ek isongeleerd dis waarom ek poes verkoop.

[He swore at me and threatened to kick mein my ‘pussy’, until I couldn’t bleedanymore….They asked for my details…whenI said I had completed Std 9, they said I amuneducated and that is why I sell my‘pussy’].

FICK

the police and frequent arrests, sometimes as oftenas four or five times a month. They also hadconcerns about the fact that despite these frequentarrests they were not charged or brought before amagistrate.

Ten sex workers reported being fined forcontravening by-laws. The fines they receivedranged from R50 to R500 and different fines wereoften given for exactly the same offence. This is acounter-productive strategy in terms of preventingpeople from continuing to do sex work, as arbitraryfines impact on sex workers’ income and they oftenhave to solicit more clients to pay the fines.

There were also complaints made by four sexworkers about the length of time they were held incustody. According to the Bill of Rights, arrested,detained and accused persons have the right “to bebrought before a court as soon as reasonablypossible, but not later than 48 hours after the arrestor at the end of the first court day after the expiry ofthe 48 hours, if the 48 hours expire outsideordinary court hours or on a day which is not anordinary court day”.

One person spoke of being arrested by Cape Town’sCity Police and held for seven days with almost nofood (two slices of bread per person per day).Others spoke of being:

…arrested for loitering and kept five days inthe [name of place] police cells, with nohearing…we were released afterwards.

Abuse of rights while in detentionPersons engaged in sex work also spoke of variousabuses of their rights while in detention. The Noticeof Rights given to those who are detained by thepolice informs them that: “You have the right to begiven the opportunity to communicate with, and bevisited by, your spouse or partner, next-of-kin,religious counsellor and a medical practitioner ofyour choice.”

A number of the women SWEAT works with aremothers who are responsible for taking care of theirchildren. One in four of the women who madecomplaints indicated that they were refused the

SA CRIME QUARTERLY No 16 JUNE 200630 FICK

to in subsection (1) shall forthwithcease to do so when so directed by apeace officer as defined in theCriminal Procedure Act 1977 (Act 51of 1977).3

The by-law against loitering is in tension withconstitutional rights guaranteeing freedom ofmovement and is often implemented in a way thatrestricts sex workers from even going about theirordinary activities as citizens (see related article inSA Crime Quarterly No 15 March 2006).

Other by-laws that are used to arrest sex workersare those relating to public nuisances. Theseinclude prohibitions against littering, excessivenoise, use of abusive or threatening language,fighting or acting in a riotous or physicallythreatening manner, urinating, defecating, spittingor being nude in public or publicly performing anysexual act.

In SWEAT’s experience, by-laws against obstructingtraffic (“no person shall intentionally block orinterfere with the safe or free passage of apedestrian or vehicle”) and the prohibition againstcarrying on trade on a national road, are also usedto arrest sex workers. Committing an offence interms of municipal by-laws can result in fining,imprisonment or alternative sentencing in amagistrates court.

Cycle of arrests and unlawful arrestsIn reality, sex workers who are arrested are seldomcharged under these by-laws and are generally notprosecuted. Women are often held for 48 hours andthen released without seeing a magistrate or arefined arbitrary amounts. This cycle of arrest andrelease without being charged is contrary to theNotice of Rights given to arrested persons, whichstates that everyone has the right “to challenge thelawfulness of their detention in person before acourt of law and to be released if such detention isunlawful”. It is also a particularly malicious form ofharassment.

Approximately half of the sex workers who madecomplaints to SWEAT spoke of such cycles ofarrests. They described high levels of contact with

SA CRIME QUARTERLY No 16 JUNE 2006 31FICK

right to make a phone call when in custody. Theresult of this is that they are held overnight orlonger, but are not able to let their family knowwhere they are or to make arrangements for thecare of their children.

When detainees are informed of their rights theyare told that: “You have the right to be detainedunder conditions consonant with human dignity,which shall include at least the provision ofadequate accommodation, nutrition, readingmaterial and medical treatment at state expense”.One in four sex workers who made complaintssaid they were not held in proper conditions,highlighting that they were kept in crowded, dirtycells, without being given adequate amounts offood or water:

If we are kept in the cells there is neverenough food and we are told that ‘kaffirs’must share porridge and the coffee.

We were kept in an overcrowded cell,with no toilet paper and no drinkingwater.

We were kept in the cell for a day, with nofood the whole day. They released uswithout seeing the magistrate or beinggiven a fine.

Two sex workers also spoke of being refusedmedication while they were in detention. In onecase a sex worker who suffers from asthma askedfor access to an asthma pump. The officer whoarrested her refused to provide her with thispotentially life-saving medication. Another sexworker who was detained with burn injuries onher foot spoke of being treated as follows whileshe was in detention:

I had third degree burns on my foot, forwhich I received treatment at the dayhospital. I informed the arresting officer Iwas in pain and he joked that I shouldhave my foot cut off. He refused to giveme painkillers and indicated that the onlypainkiller he had was ‘this’ (patting hisweapon).

Other sex workers also spoke of the theft of theirproperty while they were held in detention. Oneperson indicated that her jewellery was taken andnever returned to her. Another woman reported thatwhen she was arrested with R150 in her possessionshe only received R100 back.

Lack of police protectionStigma and social marginalisation play an importantrole in preventing certain groups from accessingpolice services and the legal system.4 Given thelevels of harassment by the police described above,it is also not surprising that mistrust of the policeplays a role, as well as victims’ fears that they won’tbe believed and that “the criminal justice systemtoo may be biased against the group to which thevictim belongs”.5

In other research done by SWEAT in 2005,participants spoke of their fear of not being believedas well as their actual experiences of not beingtaken seriously when they reported violence to thepolice.6 Sex workers who came to the SWEAT officeto make complaints confirmed this view, with onereporting the following experience when trying tolay a complaint against the police:

When I complained to the captain abouthow I was hurt when they arrested me hesaid “Ag dis maar net hoere en hy kan nie nsaak van n prostituut aaneem nie.” [Oh theyare only whores and he can’t take a casemade by a prostitute.]

Persons engaged in sex work are often traumatisedand humiliated by the treatment they receive fromthe police when they report having been raped.7

Two sex workers reported to SWEAT that the policelaughed at them when they tried to lay a charge. Inone of these cases two women who tried to report arape said police just laughed at them and refused totake their complaint:

And we reported it to the police, they justlaughed at us...No. We were made to sit inthe waiting room. And I just remember thisgirl saying she wants to speak to thedetective and then he didn’t want to help. Sothen she wanted to speak to the man incharge, he didn’t help. So eventually we left

and went back to the agency, told the boss,but he wasn’t interested.

Implications of the research

An effective criminal justice approach?

SWEAT’s experience has shown that in the past, thepolicing of the sex work industry largely took theform of reactions to isolated incidents based oncommunity complaints. However by-laws are nowbeing used for broader campaigns to ‘clean up thestreets’ or ‘remove crime and grime from our cities’.The policing of the industry seems unrelated tocommunity complaints and by-laws are beingproactively used to target and arrest sex workers tothe extent that some sex workers speak of feeling‘hunted’ by the police.

What is even more concerning is that these arrestsare accompanied by increasing complaints of abuseand human rights infringements. It is questionablewhether the frequent arrest of sex workers is aneffective use of police resources. It is also importantto consider the cost effectiveness and impact oflocal municipal policies that encourage clampingdown on sex work and arresting sex workers.

Police are the main threat to safety

The work carried out by SWEAT indicates that thehighest levels of violence against sex workers comefrom the police and law enforcement sectors.However there is little that these women can dogiven that sex work is illegal. According to sexworkers, their strategies for coping with policeviolence often involve trying to avoid contact withthe police by hiding or working at times when theythink the police are less likely to be present.

This in turn means the women often work inremote, poorly lit areas where they are morevulnerable to forced unprotected sex with clients.Their fear of the police means that sex workers areunable to access the services of police forprotection or even to report crimes that they mayhave witnessed.

Sex workers are seldom able to lay charges againstviolent police officers. In most cases this would

SA CRIME QUARTERLY No 16 JUNE 200632 FICK

need to be done at the same police station wherethe perpetrator works which means riskingencountering the offending party again. In ourexperience, sex workers do not want to riskexposing their identity and they are afraid ofretaliation by police officers if they complain aboutpolice brutality.

Alternate avenues for protection

Their other recourse is to bring their complaintsabout police mistreatment to SWEAT. Although theorganisation assists individual sex workers in layingcomplaints against police officers, this has not beena very successful strategy. In only one instance hasthe Independent Complaints Directorate taken upthe case of a sex worker who was raped by a policeofficer. SWEAT’s attempts to work with the SAPS’Internal Investigations Unit have also not resulted inthe prosecution of police officers who mistreat orabuse sex workers.

In the interests of sex workers, SWEAT engages in acombination of strategies to deal with the problemsdescribed above and to reduce the harassment ofsex workers. One of these strategies is to offertraining to police officers who approach us or toattempt to mediate and negotiate on behalf of sexworkers in community policing forums. SWEAT isalso developing more confrontational strategies tochallenge the incorrect use of by-laws to target sexworkers and to address the abuse of sex workers.

Basic and constitutional rights are disrespected

The experiences that sex workers describe reflect adehumanising lack of respect for basic human andconstitutional rights. In many instances the actionsascribed to police officers constitute crimes,including theft, assault, indecent assault and rape.These actions not only threaten sex workersphysically, but also put their children at risk whenthey are unable to make arrangements for theircare. The psychological impact of repeatedharassment and the denial of legal rights isdevastating – reinforcing stigmatisation anddiscrimination.

It is this stigma and discrimination, coupled withthe ongoing criminalisation of sex work, that

SA CRIME QUARTERLY No 16 JUNE 2006 33FICK

enables the abuse of law and of due process towhich they are subject when sex workers come intocontact with the criminal justice system.

Endnotes1 See P Pigou, Monitoring police violence and torture in

South Africa, paper presented at the InternationalSeminar on Indicators and Diagnosis on Human Rights:The case of torture in Mexico, Mexican NationalCommission for Human Rights, Mexico, 2002.

2 G Newham and D Bruce, Racism, brutality and corruption are the key human rights challenges facingthe transformation of the SAPS, 2000, retrieved March2006 <http://www.csvr.org.za/articles/artgnd2.htm>

3 Western Cape Provincial Gazette, 9 June 1995, p 271.4 J Nel, Hate crimes: A new category of vulnerable

victims for a new South Africa, in L Davis and RSnyman (eds), Victimology in South Africa, Pretoria, VanSchaik, 2005.

5 Ibid, p 245.6 N Fick, Coping with stigma, discrimination and

violence: Sex workers talk about their experiences,Cape Town, Sex Worker Education and AdvocacyTaskforce, 2005.

7 JM Wojcicki and J Malala, Condom use, power and HIV/AIDS risk: Sex workers bargain for survival inHillbrow/Joubert Park/Berea, Johannesburg, SocialScience and Medicine, 53, 2001, pp 99-121.

34 SA CRIME QUARTERLY No 16 JUNE 2006

RECENT ISS PUBLICATIONSCRIME PREVENTION AND MORALITY: THE CAMPAIGN FOR MORAL REGENERATION INSOUTH AFRICAJanine Rauch, ISS Monograph 114, April 2005

Politicians, religious leaders and social commentators have all spoken about a breakdown inmorality in South Africa, with crime as the most commonly cited evidence. The moralregeneration initiative is one response to this crisis, emerging in parallel to countless otherinitiatives aimed at reducing crime, some of which have themselves contained explicitappeals to morals, values or ethics. This monograph traces the origins and development ofthe moral regeneration initiative in South Africa, and illustrates that the initiative has sufferedfrom a lack of clarity about both its mission and its strategy. The movement’s attempts tobuild meaningful civil society participation in the campaign have also been a key challenge.The monograph also considers whether a largely ideological campaign of this type willdeliver any meaningful results in terms of strengthening social fabric and reducing crime.

TRADITIONAL JUSTICE IN PRACTICE: A LIMPOPO CASE STUDYBoyane Tshehla, ISS Monograph 115, April 2005

Traditional leadership is an entrenched attribute of governance n African countries. Even withits entrenched status, however the system of traditional leadership presents a challenge tomany countries as they try to create a harmonious relationship between this system and thepost-colonial dispensations. In South Africa – although legislation exists to govern theincorporation of traditional leadership into the post-1994 democratic dispensation – thereremains an intense debate on the issue. As this monograph argues, traditional leaderscontribute to several spheres of governance, but their role and potential in crime preventionand the administration of justice is more pronounced. The key question that faces us todaymust not be whether traditional leaders should perform such functions, but how they canparticipate in the delivery of local safety.

AFTER THE COMMANDOS: THE FUTURE OF RURAL POLICING IN SOUTH AFRICAJonny Steinberg, ISS Monograph 120, October 2005

The SANDF’s Territorial Reserve, popularly known as the Commandos, is currently beingphased out. Its role in rural crime fighting is to be taken over by the SAPS. Using three casestudies – Ladybrand in the Free State, the West Rand in Gauteng, and Uitenhage in the EasternCape – this monograph assesses the rural crime-fighting capacity that will be lost with theclosure of the Commandos, and discusses the manner in which the SAPS will replace thatcapacity. The central argument is that the SAPS will probably absorb much of the capacitycurrently contained in the Commandos, but will increasingly use it to police contact crimes inrural town. Resources will be thus shifted, partially and incrementally, away from the policingof agricultural crimes.

A MIXED RECEPTION: MOZAMBICAN AND CONGOLESE REFUGEES IN SOUTH AFRICAJonny Steinberg, ISS Monograph 117, June 2005

This monograph reviews existing literature on two episodes of forced migration to SouthAfrica. The first is the reception of between 250,000 and 350,000 Mozambicans during thatcountry’s civil war in the 1980s. The second is an influx of people from what is now theDemocratic Republic of Congo beginning in the early 1990s and continuing to this day. These two migratory episodes are very different. The Mozambican war refugees werepredominantly peasants and arrived during the late apartheid years. Congolese forcemigrants, by contrast, are largely urban and middle class, and have arrived to a constitutionaldemocracy. There is, nonetheless, a disturbing continuity between the two migrations: inboth, migrants’de jure status has meant little in regard to how they are received by stateinstitutions and South African citizens alike.


✃

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Cover photograph By Ken Oosterbroek/PictureNET Africa A prostitute teasing men outside a shebeen in theMarket Theatre precinct, downtownJohannesburg.

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