Fascinating study on how weather affects crime in SA

By Felicity Duncan Researchers at the University of Pretoria have published an intriguing study of how the weather affects patterns of crime in South Africa. They focused on Tshwane and looked at whether crime levels varied with the weather – they were particularly interested in the impact of heat and rain. Their findings, which are in line with what has been found elsewhere in the world, are very interesting. They found that, compared to cold days, violent crimes increased by 50% on hot days, while sexual crimes increased by 41% and property crime by 12%. They also found that both violent and sexual crimes in Tshwane decreased on rainy days – surprisingly, property crime increased slightly on heavy rainfall days, though only by 2%. There are various theories for why hot weather increases crime. Some argue that hot temperatures make people uncomfortable and irritable and thus more prone to violence. Others suggests that people interact more with strangers on hot days because they go outside to cool down, and there is thus more opportunity for criminals to rob and assault their victims. It’s a great study with implications for policing South Africa’s hot summers. In Premium today, you listen to an inspiring podcast featuring Alibaba founder Jack Ma and you can listen to Alec Hogg’s podcast on why serious investors are treating Elon Musk’s latest Tesla stunt as a joke. You can read about why mining companies are spending their cash on share buybacks and not new projects and you can learn why The Wall Street Journal thinks that Musk’s plan to take Tesla private is a slap in the face of his loyal shareholders. I also wanted to remind you to sign up for our webinar next week Tuesday. The webinar will focus on our Biznews SA Champions and US Exponential portfolios and Alec Hogg will be updating you on what’s happening with some of South Africa’s and the world’s biggest companies. The webinar will be held at lunch time on 14 August – you can sign up here.