City’s security rating slammed

THE INSTITUTE for Security Studies has cautioned against taking at face value a recent report that ranked Cape Town as the 14th most violent city on earth, saying the list was not accurate.

The report was released by Mexican research group Seguridad, Justicia y Paz (Security, Justice and Peace) earlier this month. Nelson Mandela Bay was ranked 35th and Durban 38th.

But ISS researcher Lizette Lancaster, manager of the institute’s crime and justice information hub, said the study had a number of flaws.

“The Mexican study is for the most part materially flawed and... methodologies exist that can provide a far more accurate picture.”

But Lancaster was also clear that this did not mean that Cape Town did not have a high murder rate when compared to other cities internationally.

According to the latest crime statistics released by police in September, the Western Cape’s murder rate per 100 000 of the population – an international benchmark – was 48.3.

A total of 2 909 people were murdered in the province between April 2013 and March last year.

Lancaster said the focus of the study by Seguridad, Justicia y Paz was on violence in Mexico.

“For the most part, the listed 50 (global) cities were only ‘props’ to the arguments relating to Mexico.

“The selected cities should be seen as examples of violent cities rather than an accurate list of the most violent cities,” she said.

The study also appeared to include only cities whose murder statistics could be found online, she said.

“At a stretch, one can describe the sampling method used as convenience sample,” she said.