Violence and Crime Prevention in South Africa: Towards the Realisation of the White Paper on Safety and Security (2016)

This handbook, which was developed for SaferSpaces by the Safety and Violence Initiative (at the University of Cape Town), was undertaken with the objective of identifying evidence, lessons and challenges that have relevance for safety and security policy realisation in South Africa. This handbook was created in consultation with the CSPS, as well as with numerous violence and crime prevention experts and practioners in South Africa, with technical and financial support from VCP. The handbook was compiled alongside the development of the ICVPS for the White Paper on Safety and Security, and hence,
this handbook should be regarded as a complementary resource for the ICVPS.

This publication addresses the six core themes of the White Paper on Safety and Security, namely: Effective criminal justice system; early intervention to prevent crime and violence and promote safety groups; victim support; effective and integrated service delivery for safety, security and violence and crime prevention; safety through environmental design; and active public and community participation.

Each of the thematic sections provides an overview of the problem, as well as an assessment of the implementation environment and an
appraisal of violence and crime prevention interventions that have relevance to South Africa. There is an additional section that provides a series of recommendations.