Bryte, a proactive business risk specialist, recently released its Q1 2019 Crime Tracker, an indicator of long-term crime trends in South Africa as captured by Bryte’s insurance claims records for the period January to March 2019.
The Q1 2019 Bryte Crime Tracker measures the annual change, on a quarterly basis, in crime-related claims (hijacking, robbery, theft and malicious damage) committed against South African businesses. The report states that, although the claims data for the period cannot be compared to official crime statistics which are not available, the data can be considered as indicative of crime trends being recorded and reported.
The report shows a drastic increase in the total incidents of crime committed against businesses in Q1 2019, compared to Q1 2018. In contrast to this, the overall crimes committed against businesses in Q1 2019 decreased by more than 28% from the previous quarter, Q4 2018.
Some of the measures the tracker revealed:
| ● | Hijack/Theft by Force (Contact Crime) – There was a significant decline in incidents of hijacking/theft by force as reflected by claims data recorded in Q1 2019. Hijacking has recorded a total decline of 65% on a year-on-year basis from Q1 2018 to Q1 2019. |
| ● | Theft – Incidents of theft have increased consistently since Q1 2018 to reach their highest level in Q4 2018. Q1 2019 however, saw a sizable decline with incidents of commercial theft decreasing by 28.5%. |
| ● | Malicious Damage – Claims related to malicious damage continued to decline significantly, dropping in Q1 2019 by a further 75.9%, however it is worth noting that nationally, there has been a slight increase. |
Click here to download the Bryte Crime Tracker.
