Submitted to the Faculty of Arts in fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree Mater of Arts in the Department of Criminal Justice at the University of Zululand, South Africa, 1995. / The police role appears to be a controversial issue since the evolution of modem
policing in Great Britain with the establishment of the Metropolitan Police under the
leadership of Sir Robert Peel in 1829. The South African Police Service. and in
particular the erstwhile Venda police. are no exceptions to the rule.
The primary aim of this investigation revolves around the statistical measurement of
the perceptions and attitudes of respondents pertaining to the role and functions of
the Venda police. For this purpose. a sample group of 406 respondents. arbitrarily
selected from four areas. namely : Thohoyandou, Makwarela, Sibasa and
Shayandirna, were subjected to a closed. structured questionnaire regarding various
aspects of the role and operational function of this independent police force.
Statistical tests, such as the F-test, were implemented to test for significance and
reliability of data obtained from questionnaires. The statistical results only represent
the perceptions and attitudes of the research group towards the Venda police.
The findings indicate:
• that the majority of the respondents perceive the role and function of the Venda
police as an important social service;
• that both male and female respondents have significant different perceptions of
the police role as it relates to the operational rendering of this social service
function;
•. insignificant differences between the various educational qualification groups
pertaining to police partiality. abuse of power and authority, lack of knowledge
and imperiousness on the part of the police are observed;
• an unwillingness among the sample group to report crime to the police due to,
inter alia. the inability of the police to effectively solve criminal cases, an
arrogant attitude among police officials. etc.; and
• that in general. the global image of the Venda police is somewhat negatively
evaluated by the total research group.
Recommendations are as follows:
• the cultivation of a better understanding of the police role by means of
facilitating closer contact and co-operation with the public;
• to provide an improved social service to the public by means of rapid responses
to calls for assistance and complaints;
• establishing a police-citizen partnership in crime prevention by means of
implementing a community style of policing;
• improving the educational qualifications and training procedures of policemen.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uzulu/oai:uzspace.unizulu.ac.za:10530/1143 |
| Date | January 1995 |
| Creators | Makibelo, Mabel Maphuti. |
| Contributors | Potgieter, P.J., Mqadi, L.P. |
| Publisher | University of Zululand |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | application/pdf |
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