Utility of crime surveys for Sustainable Development Goals monitoring and violence prevention using a public health approach

• Published in: South African medical journal Vol. 109; no. 6; pp. 382 - 386
• Main Authors: Gray, G., Prinsloo, M., Matzopoulos, R., Salau, S., Bowman, B., Shai, N., Bradshaw, D., Abrahams, N.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: South Africa Health and Medical Publishing Group (HMPG) 01.06.2019; Health & Medical Publishing Group
• Subjects: Analysis; Crime; Crime - prevention & control; Crime - statistics & numerical data; Crime Victims; Criminal statistics; Gender-Based Violence - prevention & control; Gender-Based Violence - statistics & numerical data; Health aspects; Homicide - prevention & control; Homicide - statistics & numerical data; Humans; Information Storage and Retrieval; Prevention; Public Health; Sex Offenses - prevention & control; Sex Offenses - statistics & numerical data; South Africa; Surveys and Questionnaires; Sustainable Development; Violence; Violence - prevention & control; Violence - statistics & numerical data; South Africa
• ISSN: 0256-9574; 2078-5135
• DOI: 10.7196/SAMJ.2019.v109i6.13806

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have highlighted interpersonal violence and violence against women and girls as impediments to development globally. South Africa is adversely affected by violence and injury. The annual Victims of Crime Survey (VoCS) provides a potentially useful source of complementary data to bolster vital registration and police crime statistics, but it may not provide data that are sufficiently accurate and reliable to inform prevention efforts. We conducted a critical assessment of the VoCS’s methodological robustness and strength as a data source for high-level analyses, adopting a public health and SDGs monitoring perspective that was based on expert opinion and comparison with other data sources. We concluded that either the survey methods should be improved to provide findings that are better aligned with the SDGs agenda and are robust enough to inform high-quality research and prevention, or the funds used to conduct the VoCS should be redirected to other more suitable instruments.