In the fifteen years since 1994, official statistics record over 328 000 murders, over 750 000 incidents of rape, close to 1.6 million incidents of aggravated robbery, and 3.6 million incidents of assault with intent to inflict grievous bodily harm. Numerous other incidents, of common assault, indecent assault and robbery, are also included in official statistics. Taking into account the fact that statistics under-represent (particularly nonfatal) violence, it is apparent that South Africa is a country seriously brutalised and traumatised by violence.

Most South Africans are inclined to agree that the problem of violent crime is a serious one. But a continuing feature of contemporary debates about crime is a question about whom it affects (Pharoah 2009; Silber and Geffen 2009). These debates are partly racialised. Many white South Africans, for instance, hold the view that crime, and violent crime, primarily involves young black men targeting whites (Myburgh 2009; 2010), and many perceive women as the primary victims of violence. Meanwhile, the recent outbreaks of xenophobic violence have led to suggestions that much of the violence in South Africa is directed at foreigners, while alternatively, the view is often expressed that it is poor people who are the principal victims (Silber and Geffen 2009).

The problem with all of these views is that while violent crime has common features and underlying causes it is not a uniform phenomenon. Murder, for instance, is probably best understood as a manifestation of a number of different forms of violence. But murder itself, and each of these different forms of violence, affects different groups within South Africa's population in different ways. In understanding the impact of violent crime on people in South Africa, it is necessary to take a differentiated view of violence.

This chapter is therefore largely descriptive in its focus. It aims to describe how murder and the related ‘major forms of violence’, the primary contributors to the overall problem of violent crime in South Africa, manifest themselves. It engages not only with questions about the various groups of victims affected by different aspects of the problem of violence, but also some of the other key commonalities and differences. In so doing it hopes to contribute to establishing a firmer basis for understanding what we are talking about in South Africa when we discuss violent crime.