In an increasingly globalising and urbanising world, crime in South Africa has proven to be a multifaceted and paradoxical phenomenon, displaying peculiar characteristics of increasing in certain areas, yet being invisible in others. Recently, more often than in the past, media reports on large scale crime have centred around robust reactions by police against political unrest and service delivery protests; drug use and trafficking in communities; and well-known crimes such as homicide, assault, rape and burglary; and their handling of high-profile cases.