South Africa’s crime statistics for 2018/19 were released by the police in parliament on 12 September 2019.
The factsheet summarises eight crimes of public interest.
They cover the period 1 April 2018 to 31 March 2019.
In the statistics, Sexual offences is described as a broad crime category that includes rape, compelled rape, sexual assault, incest, bestiality, statutory rape and the sexual grooming of children.
The number of reported sexual offences went up to 52,420 in 2018/19 from 50,108 in 2017/18.
Most of these were cases of rape.
The sexual offences crime rate increased from 88.3 per 100,000 in 2017/18 to 90.9 in 2018/19.