The relationships between social research and the application of research findings are diff±cult and demanding, especially in the context of problems researched in Southern Africa. For most of the years of its research, this Institute has concentrated on large projects which have extended over several years; projects which have produced substantial volumes of data and, very often, extensive proposals based on the research findings.
The urgency of the local situation has, however, impressed on us the need to publish, in addition to our traditional reports, papers of a more immediate nature. First, an Occasional Paper series was initiated, in which the reports, though shorter than usual, contained substantial empirical and conceptual material.
Now it has become clear ,than a Fact Paper Series, consisting of empirical findings along with some explanatory comment, is also needed.
This first Fact Paper typifies the nature of the series. The report presents facts of a vital and basic nature which relate to an urgent social issue. The data are being released with brief comment in the hope that reliable information on the nature of crime in Austerville may be of use in improving some of the living conditions which residents experience.
The project on which this Fact Paper is based is a joint venture. Roland Graser was solely responsible for initiating the programme, after which Sheldon Rankin was responsible for designing a field methodology and the questionnaire. The fieldwork was supervised
by both researchers, and Mr Rankin undertook the coding,
processing, tabulating and initial analysis of the data. Both
authors submitted various drafts and this document represents an
edited version of their work for which I have been partly
responsible. Credit for the work is, however, due entirely to the
researchers.
The entire project has, then, been a joint effort in every sense,
and we have therefore followed the convention of listing authors
in alphabetical order.
We hope that this Paper, and the entire Fact Paper series, will be
of some use in relating the results of social research to the
daily experiences of the people who provide the data on which our
work is based.