Inside information: Sourcing crime intelligence from incarcerated house robbers

Abstract

House robbery' is the term formulated by the South African Police Service (SAPS) to describe a robbery where the perpetrators overpower, detain and rob the residents (occupants) of a residential premise inside their residence.1 There is evidence that the police have not been successful in preventing or investigating this kind of crime. Part of the problem appears to be that the police do not have sufficient crime intelligence about house robbers. This article focuses on the value of incarcerated offenders of house robberies as an additional source of crime intelligence to the police on the basis of research conducted by the author in Gauteng in 2007.