EXPLORING THE ASSOCIATION BETWEEN COMMUNITY COHESION AND CRIME IN THE REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA

Studies have shown that community cohesion is an important factor in crimereduction. Community cohesion has thrived in societies where there is a commongoal anda mutual sense of belonging. Suchsense of belonging and commonvision has been shown to helpreduce the likelihood of becoming a victim ofviolent crime such as robbery and assault, regardless of socioeconomic status,lifestyle and neighbourhood characteristics.This study examines the nexusbetweencommunity cohesion and crime in South Africa.This secondary dataanalysis involved the 2014/2015 South African Victims of Crime SurveyfromStatistics South Africa.Using adescriptive statistics and multivariable logisticregression analysis, findings indicate that thepercentage of female respondentswith community cohesion was higher than the male (96.9% vs. 95.7%; p lower than 0.005).A higher proportion of unemployed respondents had community cohesion than theemployed (97.8% vs. 94.6%; p lower than 0.001). The higher the level of violent crime in anarea, the less the community cohesion (AOR: 0.97; p=0.016). Also, there was nosignificant difference in community cohesion between the black, coloured andIndian households. However, white households were less likely to havecommunity cohesion compared to blacks (AOR: 0.55; p lower than 0.001). Those whoreported corruption in the public service as the non-violent crime occurringmostly in theirareas were less likely to have community cohesion compared towho did not (AOR: 0.59; p=0.023).The findings show that there is a highprevalence of community cohesion among the Black, Coloured and Indianpopulations compared to the White community in South Africa