Enemies of the “state”: Vigilantism and the street gang as symbols of resistance in South Africa

Petrus, Theodore

doi:10.1016/j.avb.2015.02.006

Cited by 12 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…15,16 Most injuries occurred on the streets in the Cape Flats township area, known for a high rate of gang-related violence. 17,18 We also noticed a high rate of underage victims in Cape Town, which shows the effect of armed violence on an extremely vulnerable group. 19,20 Most patients were admitted to our hospital after an inter-hospital transfer, although 83% were not severely injured (ISS lower than 15) and were inadequate referrals for tertiary emergency care.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 79%

Epidemiology and injury severity of 294 extremity gunshot wounds in ten months: a report from the Cape Town trauma registry

Engelmann¹,

Maqungo²,

Laubscher³

et al. 2019

SA orthop. j.

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Aims: To describe the epidemiology and injury severity of patients with extremity gunshot injuries in an area with a high rate of interpersonal violence. Patients and methods: This is a prospective cohort study of patients who presented with an extremity gunshot injury and were recorded as part of a trauma registry at a large tertiary care hospital in Cape Town, South Africa, between June 2015 and April 2016. Patient demographics, injury severity scores, injury patterns and referral pathways were evaluated. Results: Of 1 123 gunshot trauma admissions in ten months, 290 (25.8%) patients (91.5% males, n=269) with a median age of 26 years (IQR 13.0) presented with extremity injuries. Median injury severity score (ISS) was 4.0 (IQR 8.0). Only one-fifth of patients had an ISS of 15 or more (n=50, 17%). Upper extremity injuries were associated with a higher risk of fractures (RR 2.15, p=0.05), higher number of nerve injuries (p=0.01), and a two times higher mean ISS (p=0.01). Admissions between 7pm and 7am with limited staffing at the emergency department were twice as high as the day admissions (n=169, 57.5% versus n=79, 26.9%). Conclusion: There is a high trauma load on the emergency department and orthopaedic service due to extremity gunshot injuries. Although upper extremity gunshot wounds constituted a red flag for higher injury severity, the overall injury severity was low. Inadequate timing and selection of emergency referrals of patients with low ISS are avoidable aggravators of this burden and should be targeted to increase efficiencies in the care of these patients.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 79%

Epidemiology and injury severity of 294 extremity gunshot wounds in ten months: a report from the Cape Town trauma registry

Engelmann¹,

Maqungo²,

Laubscher³

et al. 2019

SA orthop. j.

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“…As there is no data on gang prevalence available, I proxy gang prevalence with the share of the coloured population. Petrus (2015) documents that the majority of gangs is found within coloured communitities, and, referring to Bangstad (2005, pp.196-197), he also states that coloured gangs are not only more numerous, but also more 'durable' and more 'pervasive'…”

Section: Control Variablesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Local Inequality and Crime: New Evidence from South Africa

Büttner¹

2022

SSRN Journal

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“…Wresting violence from the hands of the state is seen as a means of undermining the reach of liberal democracy within the country, which occurs either because the state is seen as ineffective or because it is pursuing a vision of security and justice that does not cohere with that which these civic actors hold (e.g. Buur, 2006 ; Petrus, 2015 ; Sekhonyane and Louw, 2002 ; Smith, 2015 ; Super, 2017 ). Similar questions have also been asked of collaborative work with the police (e.g.…”

Section: Civic Policing As Weaponized Volunteeringmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘I can do things that others can’t’: Civic policing as weaponized volunteering in eThekwini, South Africa

Diphoorn

Cooper-Knock

2022

Current Sociology

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In this article, we analyse civic policing in post-apartheid South Africa as a form of ‘weaponized volunteering’. We use ‘weaponized volunteerism’ as a conceptual lens to refer to practices that rest on the potentiality and/or willingness to use physical violence or to harness the physical violence of others under the guise of ‘volunteer work’. By drawing from ethnographic fieldwork conducted by both authors in eThekwini, South Africa, we show that by framing civic policing as weaponized volunteerism, we are able to analyse the violence at the core of policing and underline the varied ways that violence work is harnessed and expanded through civic policing, in the interest of civic and state actors. This, in turn, allows us to explore the continuum between state and civic violence, which is often directed towards similar groups and individuals.

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Enemies of the “state”: Vigilantism and the street gang as symbols of resistance in South Africa

Cited by 12 publications

References 18 publications

Epidemiology and injury severity of 294 extremity gunshot wounds in ten months: a report from the Cape Town trauma registry

Epidemiology and injury severity of 294 extremity gunshot wounds in ten months: a report from the Cape Town trauma registry

Local Inequality and Crime: New Evidence from South Africa

‘I can do things that others can’t’: Civic policing as weaponized volunteering in eThekwini, South Africa

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