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Generally, the application of geographic profiling (also known as geoprofiling) is under-researched and its scientific and theoretical foundations, as well as the existing research evidence of its effectiveness, claimed to be inadequate and questionable. Notwithstanding, the present study explored the role of geographic profiling, in the context of the South African serial rapist, by scrutinising, amongst others, the locations of their crime sites. The basic theoretical assumptions underlying geographic profiling, their empirical validity, methods of constructing geographic profiles, and geographic profiling’s accuracy were also probed. Findings presented pioneering criminological insights on how serial rapists navigated to and from their crime sites, which could potentially assist national and international crime investigators with the prediction of subsequent offence locales.

The ‘success’ of a polygraph examination is predicated on the establishment of differential or emotional salience (a ‘psychological set’) with an examinee. This, according to polygraph proponents, guarantees that an examinee will respond appropriately during the administration of the in-test (questioning) phase of the polygraph examination. However, polygraph procedure, as prescribed by its governing body, the American Polygraph Association (APA), is a static clinical Westernised process that does not make any provision for human multiplicity (culture/ethnicity, idiosyncrasies, level of education, language proficiency, ideologies, and so forth). Identical (one size fits all) test procedures are applied across the board – a highly controversial methodology. The objectives of this study were to explore the degree to which certain intentional and unintentional human behaviour modification strategies have the potential to counterbalance claimed polygraph probity from an ontological and discursive standpoint and expose disquiet (potential flaws) regarding polygraph theory in the context of the ‘psychological set’. This article, furthermore, seeks to create an awareness of polygraph’s epistemic ambivalence and provide food-for-thought regarding its unadulterated application.

The ‘success’ of a polygraph examination is predicated on the establishment of differential or emotional salience (a ‘psychological set’) with an examinee. This, according to polygraph proponents, guarantees that an examinee will respond appropriately during the administration of the in-test (questioning) phase of the polygraph examination. However, polygraph procedure, as prescribed by its governing body, the American Polygraph Association (APA), is a static clinical Westernised process that does not make any provision for human multiplicity (culture/ethnicity, idiosyncrasies, level of education, language proficiency, ideologies, and so forth). Identical (one size fits all) test procedures are applied across the board – a highly controversial methodology. This article, instead of rigidly focusing on validity and reliability issues per se, explores the degree to which certain intentional and unintentional human behaviour modification strategies have the potential to counterbalance claimed polygraph rectitude from a metaphysical and discursive standpoint. The article exposes concerns (potential flaws) relating to polygraph theory in the context of the ‘psychological set’ and is intended to serve as a caveat regarding the unmitigated use thereof.

For the past two decades, rhino poaching has made headline news as the South African and global public increasingly endeared themselves to this species, in part due to their precarious status and conservation plight. On the African continent, whilst rhino-poaching pressure has topped out at the pandemic level, another conservation crime, namely elephant poaching, has surreptitiously amplified and annually been spiraling upwards. As rhino populations have dwindled, and amidst this decline and allied loss of poaching opportunities, wildlife poachers have ostensibly diverted their efforts to other more accessible species. This article highlights the auguring southwardly migrating poaching risk to elephants, the extent to which elephants are becoming a surrogate species for rhinos and/or other forms of wildlife in the context of poaching momentum, effort and economics, and the role that crime displacement and passe confidence in reactive intervention paradigms play, as potential drivers, in the continent-wide elephant defaunation.

Criminology as a science has evolved over the past 50 years from a “sub-discipline” into a self-reliant and contemporary discipline. Many adjacent to criminology Social Science experts believe that criminology has ‘nothing to offer’ but mere theoretical explanations while other experts are cynical about criminology's relevance, independence, practical application and possible contribution to the criminal justice system (inter-disciplinary approach). Specifically in South Africa there has been a criminological evolution from traditionally unapplied theoretical approaches to applied and practical contributions in various sectors of society. Current worldwide criminological contributions and outputs are noted within criminal justice policy and reform strategies, lawmaking, lawbreaking, reactions to crime, development of empirical scales to evaluate and predict criminal behaviour, sound explanations of crime, and pioneering scientific methods (methodology) in studying crime. This paper aims to underscore Crim...

South Africa has one of the highest crime and recidivism rates in the world. Although widely accepted that crime is a complex and multi-nodal social phenomenon, it is indubitably causally linked to South Africa’s historical and current socio-political circumstances, poverty and unemployment, as well as the ineffective rehabilitation and treatment of offenders. Anecdotal evidence suggests that offenders are often apportioned the blame for reoffending and written off as incorrigible, without any real reflection on the efficiency and/or relevance of the prison programmes to which they were subjected to begin with. Accurate and relevant assessment of criminogenic risk factors is not only connected to the major outcomes of meta-analyses, but forms the foundation for treatment-planning and decision-making pertaining to risk and safety, and ultimately abstinence from aberrant behaviour. This article critically addresses the issue of South African needs-based offender rehabilitation in a systemic and diagnostic manner by aligning theory with relevant case scenarios in order to expose the essence of the therapeutic challenges in the South African custodial environment.