EXPLORING THE ASSOCIATION BETWEEN COMMUNITY COHESION AND CRIME IN THE REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA

• Main Authors: A A. Olutola Dr., P.O. Bello
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Social Sciences Research Society 2016-01-01
• Series: International Journal of Social Sciences and Humanity Studies
• Online Access: http://www.sobiad.org/eJOURNALS/journal_IJSS/arhieves/IJSS2016_1/Paper63A_Olutola_Bello.pdf

Studies have shown that community cohesion is an important factor in crimereduction. Community cohesion has thrived in societies where there is a commongoal anda mutual sense of belonging. Suchsense of belonging and commonvision has been shown to helpreduce the likelihood of becoming a victim ofviolent crime such as robbery and assault, regardless of socioeconomic status,lifestyle and neighbourhood characteristics.This study examines the nexusbetweencommunity cohesion and crime in South Africa.This secondary dataanalysis involved the 2014/2015 South African Victims of Crime SurveyfromStatistics South Africa.Using adescriptive statistics and multivariable logisticregression analysis, findings indicate that thepercentage of female respondentswith community cohesion was higher than the male (96.9% vs. 95.7%; p lower than 0.005).A higher proportion of unemployed respondents had community cohesion than theemployed (97.8% vs. 94.6%; p lower than 0.001). The higher the level of violent crime in anarea, the less the community cohesion (AOR: 0.97; p=0.016). Also, there was nosignificant difference in community cohesion between the black, coloured andIndian households. However, white households were less likely to havecommunity cohesion compared to blacks (AOR: 0.55; p lower than 0.001). Those whoreported corruption in the public service as the non-violent crime occurringmostly in theirareas were less likely to have community cohesion compared towho did not (AOR: 0.59; p=0.023).The findings show that there is a highprevalence of community cohesion among the Black, Coloured and Indianpopulations compared to the White community in South Africa.