- Title
- Applying anthropological perspectives in criminal procedures involving murder in Port Elizabeth, 2000-2016
- Creator
- Thornton, Jessica Leigh
- Subject
- Murder -- South Africa -- Port Elizabeth
- Subject
- Crime -- South Africa -- Port Elizabeth Law enforcement -- South Africa -- Port Elizabeth Criminology -- South Africa -- Port Elizabeth
- Date Issued
- 2019
- Date
- 2019
- Type
- Thesis
- Type
- Doctoral
- Type
- DPhil
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10948/45238
- Identifier
- vital:38335
- Description
- With the spike of annual reported murders in South Africa, the country is continuing to climb the global rank of the world’s most violent countries. In 2016 alone, there were over nineteen thousand reported murders, equalling over fifty murders per day, with the Eastern Cape holding position as the province with the highest murder rate. Studies indicate that Port Elizabeth is the hardest hit by crime, adding up to 60% of all reported crimes in the province and despite the use of a ‘catch and convict’ only approach in criminal proceedings, violence and crime are still highly prevalent. Thus, overall the situation suggests that it may be beyond law enforcement control and even though the South African Police Service have taken some progressive steps in reforming procedures, generally, these have been too little and too late, as the reforms introduced are piecemeal and crisis driven. This thesis, therefore, proposes that additional approaches may be needed to improve investigations of the most pernicious crimes. Here, the focus is on the role of culture and social life in ‘murder-scapes’ with a critical contribution of the ‘habitus’ of murder allowing for the meaningful engagement with criminal acts, policing, sentencing, imprisonment and probation. In this regard, perspectives drawn from anthropology can possibly assist law enforcement officials in their steps of investigating a murder by providing a more ethnographic, holistic and integrated narrative in all areas of a criminal proceeding. An efficacious and constructive interpretation of the different subcultures, crime scene processing, profiles development, testimony documentation and participation production with the police force and task teams can assist in redirecting and reappraising current practises that prove incompetent. That is, in attempting to review the current procedures conducted by law enforcers to identify how and where anthropological and ethnographical knowledge can be applied and successfully utilised, an assessment may aid officials in better investigative practises which could have implications for wider lenses making use of action, investigation, containment, prevention and rehabilitation. By advancing a deep understanding of the issue of murder in the South African context, implications for a wider, equally modernising and equally troubled society in the global South can be inferred.
- Format
- xi, 249 leaves
- Format
- Publisher
- Nelson Mandela University
- Publisher
- Faculty of Humanities
- Language
- English
- Rights
- Nelson Mandela University
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NMU School of Governmental and Social Sciences
| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details Download | SOURCE1 | Thornton, J 211196088 Thesis Dec 2019.pdf | 3 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download |