There is a dearth of research on crime in South Africa, which is particularly problematic in this country
given the extraordinary high crime rates reported here. Common correlates of crime, such as
unemployment, poverty, and inequality, are also at extreme levels in South Africa – making the
investigation of the determinants of crime even more pertinent in this context. We combine published
crime statistics with demographic data from the 2011 South African Census Community Profiles to
investigate which socio-economic factors attract crime at a police precinct level. In particular, we
investigate whether, and to what extent, precinct-level unemployment and income and intra-precinct
inequality are related to reported crime rates within a particular precinct. The expectation was that
resource-acquisition driven crimes (i.e. property and robbery crimes) would be attracted by high levels
of income and inequality in a precinct, and low levels of unemployment.