Durban - Durban is among the 50 most violent cities in the world, an international study has found.
Compiled by Mexico’s Citizens’ Council for Public Security and Criminal Justice, the study – which ranked cities according to the murder rate per 100 000 residents – placed Durban – with 32.2 murders per 100 000 residents – in 48th position. Port Elizabeth and Cape Town also made the grim rankings, the former at 41 with its murder rate at 35.76 per 100 000 residents.
Cape Town was ranked the most violent South African city in 20th position, with 50.94 murders per 100 000 residents.
Johannesburg, once touted as the murder capital of the world, did not make the list – it has a murder rate of 26 per 100 000 people.
The ranking does not count deaths in war zones or cities with unavailable data.
The study, published online by Business Insider, found that the most violent city in the world was San Pedro Sula in Honduras which recorded 187.14 murders per 100 000 residents, followed by Caracas in Venezuela (134.36) and Acapulco in Mexico (112.8).
The study found that murder was more common in Latin America than in any other part of the world, with 34 of the 50 worst cities located in the region.
Drug trafficking, gang wars, political instability, corruption, and poverty were blamed for the high murder rate there.
No European or Asian city made the list, but four US cities did, with Detroit placed highest at 24 (46.99 murders), followed by New Orleans at 26 (45.08), Baltimore at 36 (37.77) and St Louis at 45 (34.14). Brazilian cities dominated the rankings with 15 in the top 50.
Professor Moses Montesh of Unisa’s Department of Police Practice said that while he could not vouch for the accuracy of the study’s methodology, it did reaffirm other studies which showed – contrary to public perception – that South African cities were not ranked in the top 10 of violent cities.
“It is because South Africa is the powerhouse of Africa so everything that happens here gets splashed in newspapers around the world, creating the impression that South Africa is a violent country,” Montesh said.
“We cannot take away that crime does take place, but to be classified as one of the most violent countries is an overstatement. If you look at countries as far as policing is concerned, we are far better than many countries,” he said.
Lizette Lancaster, a crime researcher at the Institute for Security Studies, said that while she did not have the institute’s city murder figures on hand, the international study “sounds about right”.
She, however, cautioned against relying on raw figures to compare crime between various cities.
“Researching murders for cities is quite an involved thing because one encounters huge methodological problems. There is never a 100 percent match for the statistics,” Lancaster said.
“The problem with a study like this is what is defined as homicide in South Africa is not what is defined as homicide in Mexico.
“The methodology and level of data available in different countries are inconsistent. Some countries don’t even have statistics.
“It is irresponsible to compare and build a city-level ranking (of) murders especially as for many cities these crime stats are not available and the definitions are different.”
Lancaster said that in a city like Durban, certain suburbs would be crime-free while others would show high levels because crime was not equally distributed.
“We know that crime is high in certain areas like KwaMashu and it is not the same as it is in Musgrave or the Berea. We also know there are areas like uMhlanga that have quite high crime rates, however, because it is a business node. They have day and night populations that compound the issue,” she said.
“You will see that in quiet suburban areas the chances are their violent crime rate is very low while at informal settlements it will be quite high.
“If you look at Johannesburg, it has a murder rate of 26 per 100 000 of the population which is below the South African average of 32.2.
“However, when you look at robberies, Johannesburg is far higher than some cities with higher murder rates. So murder in itself is not an indicator of general violence,” Lancaster said.
Daily News