《South Africa--The state of crime and policing》.pdf

a Part II: Society z . c a . s s e r p c r s h . w w w m o r f d a o l n w o d e e r F Free download from www.hsrcpress.ac.za Society: introduction John Daniel, Roger Southall and Jessica Lutchman a z . c a . s s e r Under the broad rubric of ‘society’, the previous State of the Nation volume p c dealt with civil society, families, curriculum reform in education, higher edu- r s h. cation, HIV/AIDS policymaking and the land question. All these important w topics could valuably be aired again. However, with the exception of the par- w w ticularly pressing issue of HIV/AIDS, the editors have postponed revisiting m them in favour of topics which have similarly pressing claims for attention: an o analysis of crime and policing, the defence force, the state of our schools and r f d of women, Islam, and of the arts and our archives. Equally good cases could a be made for the examination of, say, the state of science, research and devel- o l n opment, of the delivery of health services (in general), and of social grants to w o the poor, of human rights, of the media, and of our small arms control. d However, even if our selection of topics is inevitably somewhat arbitrary, few e e are going to quibble at the salience of all our present contributions. r F There are few topics which loom so large in popular debate as crime. In his chapter on crime and policing, Ted Leggett offers an exemplary critique of many of the shibboleths of both policy and opinion which shape discussion on how South