Specialised services provided by criminal justice agencies, the government and non-governmental organisations to assist victims of crime, although limited, have been established in South Africa. They seek to assist victims in various ways: by providing psychological counselling, medical treatment, recovering stolen property, assistance with applying for compensation, or assistance with court proceedings.

Whether or not victims in Durban used these services appeared to be related to perceptions about whether the services would meet their needs, views about the effectiveness of the services, awareness of the services, and the accessibility of services.

In the survey, victims were asked who they turned to for help, what support they would have liked and whether they had heard of and used victim support agencies.

Type of support that victims would have liked

On the whole, victims wanted effective policing and emotional support (table 9). Fewer victims said they wanted counselling, financial and practical assistance and community support. Not surprisingly, victims of violent crime were more likely to want emotional support and counselling, whereas victims of property crime were more keen on effective policing.

There were significant differences in the type of support needed by victims across race. The type of support mostly sought by African victims was emotional support (perhaps because of the high levels of violent crime experienced by this group) followed by better policing (table 9). While these were also the most popular choices for whites, these victims were more likely than any other group to want advice, information and counselling. Asian victims were more likely than others to express a need for effective policing. They were least likely to ask for emotional, financial and practical support.

Knowledge and use of support services

Victims’ knowledge and use of victim support agencies were low. For most crimes, less than a third of victims had heard of any support services (figure 20). Victims of sexual offences were most likely to have heard of such services — probably because agencies have been active in this sector for some time.

The limited knowledge of these services shows the need to improve the information available to victims. However, before raising awareness about victim support services, the availability of existing services, as well as the capacity of the police and other agencies to refer victims have to be considered.

The fact that few victims had heard about these services does not in itself mean that all victims require this sort of assistance. The data here has to be considered in conjunction with that above on what victims want, as well as whether they think victim support will be useful (see below).

Since few victims had heard of such services, it is not surprising that few had actually made use of this type of assistance. In most crime categories, with the exception of sexual offences, a quarter or less of victims had received help (figure 21). This probably relates as much to awareness about these services as to the availability or lack of such services in many areas. It is encouraging, however, that over half of the victims reporting sexual offences did receive assistance. This high rate may not reflect the experiences of sexual assault survivors generally, since those visiting support agencies were probably also those most likely to report this crime to the survey.

Given that victims had so little experience and knowledge of support services, it is not surprising that few thought these services would be useful (figure 22). Whether or not victims judge these services to be useful probably depends on several factors, such as awareness about victim support and its benefits, and how much time has passed between the occurrence of the crime and the interview. The latter is one factor that is likely to affect the type of assistance that victims think is important.