The simple truth is that the police do not prevent crime, and some researchers even refer to this responsibility (of the police) as an impossible mandate.

This handbook is a reference for those who intend to introduce practices to reduce and prevent crime. It forms part of a series of tools developed by the United Nations. Office on Drugs and Crime to support countries in implementing the rule of law and the development of crime prevention and criminal justice reform. It uses experience from the developing word, especially from the Caribbean and Southern Africa and takes into account the work that has been done on the South-South exchange programme since 2004. It is a very useful tool to know why crime takes place, what kind of programme for crime prevention works depending on the context, what information is needed as well as what are the ways to build capacity for effective crime prevention.

"[A] cogent and well-informed discussion of the South African Police Service and the organisational problems it faces." —Stephen Ellis Since the mid-1990s, South Africa has experienced a crime wave of such unprecedented proportions that the ability of the new democracy to form a stable civil society and govern effectively has been called into question. In this timely book, Mark Shaw describes how a police force that was so effective under apartheid became so ineffectual in the face of rising crime. He shows how an increase in violent crime shapes society, police, and government, and discusses possible solutions for the current crisis. International crimes such as war, terrorism, and organized crime are explored along with crimes that affect individual security, such as armed robbery, murder, and rape. Crime and Policing in Post-Apartheid South Africa draws attention to both the national and the international dimensions of crime in this society in transition.

Once a marginal political issue, crime control now occupies a central place on the social, political and economic agenda of contemporary liberal democracies. Nowhere more so than in post-apartheid South Africa, where the transition from apartheid rule to democratic rule was marked by a shift in concern from political to criminal violence. In this book Anne-Marie Singh offers a comprehensive account of policing transformations in post-apartheid South Africa. Her analysis of crime and mechanisms for its control is linked to an analysis of neo-liberal policies, providing the basis for a critique of existing analyses of liberal democratic governance. Themes addressed in the book include the exercise of coercive authority, state and non-state expertise in policing, the 'rationally-choosing' criminal, and the importance of developing an active and responsible citizenship.

"The SANDF's Territorial Reserve, popularly known as the Commandos, is currently being phased out. Its role in rural crime fighting is to be taken over the SAPS [South African police]. Using three case studies ... this monograph assesses the rural crime-fighting capacity that will be lost with the closure of the Commandos, and discusses the manner in which the SAPS will replace that capacity."--P. [4] of cover.

This book deals with the historic transition to democracy in South Africa and its impact upon crime and punishment. It examines how the problem of crime has emerged as a major issue to be governed in post-apartheid South Africa. Having undergone a dramatic transition from authoritarianism to democracy, from a white minority to black majority government, South Africa provides rich material on the role that political authority, and challenges to it, play in the construction of crime and criminality. As such, the study is about the socio-cultural and political significance of crime and punishment in the context of a change of regime. The work uses the South African case study to examine a question of wider interest, namely the politics of punishment and race in neoliberalizing regimes. It provides interesting and illuminating empirical material to the broader debate on crime control in post-welfare/neoliberalizing/post transition polities.