People Who Have Stolen from Me

In addition to artifacts, recipes, and pic of the week, we’re launching another new feature here on gautango: recommended reading.

In honor of our own recent brush with crime, our very first review is on the book People Who Have Stolen from Me, by David Cohen.

Bob and I have quite opposed reading preferences. The religion major and educator appreciates fine literature. The sociology major and lawyer prefers informative non-fiction.

But this book appealed to both of us. A journalist by training, Cohen illustrates the dynamics of criminality in modern South Africa by relating the story of fraud, theft, and violence at a Johannesburg furniture store.

For the fiction lover, it’s a great read. The characters are vividly drawn and the topic — crime, greed, and deceit — has obvious dramatic appeal. For a quick sense of the flavor, you can check out excerpts at amazon.com.

On the non-fiction side, the story deftly illustrates the techniques of organized and petty crime, the weaknesses of the institutions designed to address it, and crime’s broader social impact in the new South Africa.

According to the statistics quoted by Cohen, South Africa has experienced an explosion of crime since the 1994 democratic transition. Housebreakings up 33%, fraud up 67%, robberies up 169%.

I’m actually somewhat skeptical of these numbers. It’s hard to separate out how much is actually an increase in crime, and how much is simply an increase in reporting now that black South Africans have more trust in the police.

Setting aside the question of whether crime statistics were accurate under the apartheid regime, though, the current figures are grim. South Africa’s murder rate – a relatively reliable indicator – is 15 times that of the United States.

Cohen addresses economic and political motivations for crime — people who steal to survive or because they feel something is due to them. But in the end, I think his story suggests that South Africa’s high crime rates have less to do with poverty than with the disfunction of the criminal justice system.

Cohen’s tale deftly illustrates the centrality of corruption in South Africa’s crime problem. The story doesn’t omit the more violent assaults on Jules Street Furnishings, but it focuses especially on employee fraud. Along the way we Cohen includes tales of criminals paying police men to “lose” their files, and armed cash transport companies hit by insider jobs.

Because Cohen’s narrative focuses on middle class characters, however, it misses another key dynamic of crime in South Africa; its disproportionate impact on the poor. Electric fences and private cars provide some protection to those that can afford them; violence hits hardest on the most vulnerable.

Cohen actually has another title which may interest this audience, Chasing the Red, White, and Blue: A journey in Tocqueville’s footsteps through contemporary America. I’ll be sure to read it and let you know what he has to say about the USA in an future post.