Respondents were questioned about the following:

the support they received after victimisation and what they would have liked;



who they turned to for help following the crime;



whether they thought the services of a special agency for crime victims would have been useful;



whether they had heard of such agencies;



whether they received help from them after an incident;



which agencies helped them; and



what kind of support they would have preferred.

Specialised services provided by criminal justice agencies, the government and voluntary organisations to assist victims of crime, although limited, have been established in South Africa. They seek to assist victims in the following ways: psychological counselling and medical treatment, recovery of stolen property, applications for available compensation, or attendance at court procedures. The factors decisive to victims' utilisation of the services of these specialised agencies appear to be whether their needs are likely to be addressed by such agencies, their perceptions of the effectiveness associated with these services, their awareness of their existence, and accessibility.

Figure 44: What kind of support would victims have liked by crime type

WHAT VICTIMS WANT

In most instances, victims are likely to want emotional support and counselling. This would explain why most indicated that they turned to families and friends first for assistance. Surprisingly, and of encouragement for the police, this was the second most popular source of assistance for victims.

Effective policing and protection, as well as emotional support and counselling, are mainly what the victims of crime want, rather than practical or financial support. The vast majority of victims rely on family and friends as a first port of call for assistance, followed by the police.

The nature of the crime (violent versus property, or the degree of violence) and the associated fear may determine the type of assistance victims would like. Of burglary victims, 57,5 per cent and 48,2 per cent of robbery or mugging victims favour effective policing, followed closely by emotional counselling. While effective policing is high on their agendas, victims of hijackings and assaults were more likely first to want emotional counselling from such agencies. These findings did not vary significantly across race or gender, although more African victims were more in favour of effective policing than emotional counselling. Both male and female respondents were equally in favour of emotional support and counselling as a priority need following victimisation.

USEFULNESS OF SPECIALISED AGENCIES

A large percentage of victims who responded to this question did not know whether such services would be useful. However, victims of sexual assault, vehicle hijacking and murder were the most likely to think that they might be. Since these are the most violent crimes, this makes sense. Sixty-three per cent of sexual assault victims felt that the assistance of victim service agencies would have been useful. The fact that so many women identified the need for support from such agencies, indicates the necessity to publicise the existence of these agencies and to make them accessible to women, in general. Agencies of this nature often do not advertise their services widely as they feel they would be unable to deal with the subsequent demand due to a lack of resources (many are dependent on non-government funding).

In the Western Cape, services available for victims of sexual assault are limited, with Rape Crisis being the only service provider that specialises in sexual assault. The organisation has three offices (Observatory, Manenberg and Khayelitsha), but none of these offices provide shelter for the victims of rape. In addition to the provision of much needed counselling and court preparation services, Rape Crisis has focused the public's attention on rape, provided training to the police, district surgeons and magistrates, and has played a major role in shifting and monitoring policies and legislation in relation to sexual offences.

Research done by Rape Crisis in Khayelitsha reports that the women in their study, who were all clients of Rape Crisis, contacted the centre because they wanted to talk to someone without fear of being judged.38 Other reasons for contacting Rape Crisis included wanting to obtain strength and courage, advice on what to do, assistance in the conviction of the rapist and to reduce the fear of being attacked again. Of all the women who were interviewed in this survey, women feared rape the most (31 per cent), followed by murder (24 per cent). Rape victims desperately require the kinds of support and counselling services that these organisations provide and the need for state authorities to recognise, promote and (financially) support this kind of organisation to develop and provide these essential services to South Africa's increasing population of rape victims, should be addressed.

Of the victims of vehicle hijackings, 34,3 per cent believed that the services of a specialised agency would have been useful, with whites living in the southern suburbs of Cape Town particularly thinking so. In those cases where a household member had been murdered, as many as 30 per cent of the victims thought support would have been useful. In the United Kingdom, Victim Support, an organisation which provides assistance to all victims of crime, has recognised this need and offers specially tailored programmes for families of murder victims. Most burglary, assault, and robbery or mugging victims - less violent crime types - either did not know or were unlikely to think that such services would be useful. Across crime types, whites were the most likely to think that such services would be useful, while coloured and African respondents were less inclined to think so, a finding similar to that of the Johannesburg victim survey. This may be the result of two things: more services in white areas or suburbs, or that Africans use their own means of getting support, i.e. informal support offered by family and friends rather than professional counselling.

The large proportion of victims who were unsure of the usefulness of these agencies suggests a low awareness of their existence and of the potential benefits of specialised assistance to stem the cycle of violence. Indeed, the majority of respondents across crime types had not heard of such agencies, although 40,4 per cent of families of murder victims had. Only 8,3 per cent of hijacking victims had heard of such agencies. Africans living in townships and informal areas were the least likely to be aware of their existence. This low awareness may point to the need for much greater publicity of available services, but more likely indicates the lack of services in these areas. This is something which is recognised by the Department of Welfare, as the National Crime Prevention Strategy's lead agency on victim empowerment issues.

In terms of actually receiving help from agencies, of the respondents who answered this question, only 35 victims in Cape Town had received help from these agencies and 25 gave the names of the specific organisations.

Names of Specific Organisations

Rape Crisis


Life Line


Community structures


NICRO


Neighbourhood Watch


Student Representative Council


Trauma Centre


Groote Schuur Hospital

The diversity of these sources of assistance suggests that people understand support differently, for example Life Line and Neighbourhood Watch offer widely diverse services.

Victims of assault, murder and robbery or mugging from the former coloured and African areas had made use of NICRO, the Trauma Centre, Groote Schuur Hospital, as well as community options and the local Student Representative Council. Those living in the former white suburbs had gone to Neighbourhood Watch for support. Those that sought assistance for sexual assault went to Life Line, to their communities or to Rape Crisis.