Crime Prevention and Morality: The Campaign for Moral Regeneration in South Africa

Abstract

Politicians, religious leaders, and social commentators have all spoken about a breakdown in morality in South Africa, with crime as the most commonly cited evidence. The moral regeneration initiative is one response to this crises, emerging in parallel to countless other initiatives aimed at reducing crime, some of which have themselves contained explicit appeals to morals, values or ethics. In its strategy to tackle crime, the 1996 National Crime Prevention Strategy (NCPS) consisted of four 'pillar' - each one 'a particular arena of attack against the factors which create or facilitate criminal activity'. One of these 'pillars' focused on public values and education, with the intention of tackling "the prevailing moral climate within communities, the attitudes towards crime, and the tolerance towards crime". The origins of the moral regeneration initiative date back to a meeting between then-President Nelson Mandela and key South African religious leaders in June 1997. At...