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Community involvement should form a major part of the transformation of the criminal justice system, a study conducted by the Women's Development Foundation (WDF) and the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) recommends. The study ? conducted in Bloemfontein, Qwaqwa/Harrismith and Welkom between October 1997 and March 1998 with a grant from the Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology's (DACST) Crime Prevention Innovation Fund ? found that there had been little community support for crime prevention programmes in all the areas. The lack of co-operation between the community and those representing the criminal justice system (CJS) was mainly ascribed to a lack of confidence in the system and ignorance about the procedures for laying charges and opening cases. "The study aims to contribute to the National Crime Prevention Strategy (NCPS) by enriching the gender perspectives already contained in the NCPS document and to provide insight into Free State communities' view of the CJS, crime prevention and the causes of crime", says Dr Willem Schurink, chief research specialist at the HSRC. A total of 78 focus group interviews and 86 face-to-face interviews were conducted by community members who had been trained for this purpose. The research yielded important findings and policy recommendations for the transformation of the CJS and crime prevention. The key policy recommendation that emerged from the study indicates the need for the transformation of the CJS with specific reference to gender sensitisation. The view of the Free State communities was that community involvement should form a major part of that transformation. Other relevant recommendations include the following: Partnerships should be encouraged between the CJS and communities. Service providers within the CJS should receive in-service training on the CJS in order to re-orientate them to the new democracy and instil a new service ethic. Communities should become involved in the conceptualisation of the National Crime Prevention Strategy (NCPS) and other crime prevention programmes. The NCPS needs to be popularised through involving communities in developing and implementing CJS awareness programmes. Gender awareness should be a priority and the school curriculum should include gender training. Women should attend workshops to train them in life skills such as assertiveness and communication and to teach them about their constitutional rights. Poverty relief programmes and job creation programmes should be initiated in collaboration with the private sector, as poverty and unemployment are regarded as the most important causes of crime.
"Major strides have been made in recent years to create a climate of acknowledging women's rights in decision-making processes", Dr Schurink said. He quoted the promulgation of the Domestic Violence Act, the identification of crimes against women as a policing priority and the call for the observation of 16 days of no violence against women between 25 November and 10 December as prominent examples. "It is noteworthy that there is congruence between the recommendations in the study and what is already contained in the government's NCPS. The implication is that boundless opportunities exist for both the citizenry and government to address crime", he added. The following views of the CJS came to the fore during the study: Whereas the CJS was seen to be harsh and insensitive towards victims, especially women, it was seen to be lenient towards perpetrators in that court sentences were not in line with the seriousness of the crimes. In respect of crime against women, the majority indicated that nothing or little was being done by their communities to fight or prevent these crimes. The CJS was generally deemed inaccessible to women and their scant knowledge of procedures for approaching the CJS for assistance seriously limited their access to it. Embarrassment to talk about gender crimes such as rape, regarding gender crimes as a private matter and the ineffective punishment of offenders were seen as the main reasons for the underreporting of gender crimes. Participants perceived sentences meted out for crimes committed against whites to be heavier than for crimes committed against other groups. Blacks, as well as township and squatter camp residents felt they were either neglected or discriminated against by the police and the courts.
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