Abstract:
In 2019, the murders of five homeless men in Pretoria drew attention to the
vulnerability of people living on the street. Despite more than two decades of
democracy, social injustices and inequality continue to characterise post-apartheid
South Africa. In addition to rampant poverty burgeoning informal settlements
and poor housing, homelessness forms an integral part of the country’s urban and
rural landscapes. However, homelessness is often accompanied by victimisation,
racial and social injustices, and human rights violations. This paper reports on
the victimisation of homeless people in South Africa, their patterns of reporting
such incidences, and interactions with criminal justice agents. The paper also
contextualises a fear of crime among the homeless and evaluates the limitations
of the lifestyle exposure, routine activities, and deviance place theories to
adequately explain injustices committed against the homeless. Implications for
context-specific and global realities regarding homeless people are discussed.
Quantitative data was obtained through non-probability sampling strategies from
40 urban and 30 rural homeless people. More than half of respondents felt unsafe
while living on the streets (55.8%), feared becoming a victim of crime in the next
year (54.5%) and the greater proportion of respondents (57.1%) had fallen victim
to crime in the past. Statistically significant differences (p<0.05; r>0.4) featured
between urban and rural respondents in terms of theft and harassment and anticipating victimisation. The findings highlight the social injustices suffered
by homeless people, often at the hand of those who are supposed to protect
vulnerable groups.
