The study was aimed at exploring the relationship between poverty and aggravated
robbery in Limpopo Province. Sampled secondary data of aggravated robbery offenders,
obtained from the South African Police (SAPS), Polokwane, was used in the
analysis. From empirical researches on poverty and crime, there are some deductions
that vulnerability to crime is increased by poverty. Poverty set was categorised by
gender, employment status, marital status, race, age and educational attainment.
Variables for aggravated robbery were house robbery, bank robbery, street/common
robbery, carjacking, truck hijacking, cash-in-transit and business robbery. Canonical
correlation analysis was used to make some inferences about the relationship of these
two sets. The results revealed a significant positive correlation of 0.219(p-value =
0.025) between poverty and aggravated robbery at five per cent significance level. Of
the thirteen variables entered into the poverty-aggravated model, five emerged as statistically
significant. These were gender, marital status, employment status, common
robbery and business robbery.