In his latest book "Fruit of a Poisoned Tree", Antony Altbeker writes about the most sensational murder trial of the past two decades - the Inge Lotz trial. And it is the depth of Antony’s experience in the field that led the Financial Mail to dub him “one of SA's leading experts on crime”. Business Day wrote: Whether the new lot can make a real and enduring difference to the crime stats will be seen only a few years hence. But they are saying at least some of the right things. In his excellent book on SA's crime crisis 'A Country at War with Itself', Antony Altbeker argues that the crime problem could not be solved using current police strategies that focused on preventing crime from happening. Far more attention needs to be paid to building our capacity to identify, prosecute and incarcerate criminals.
"Essentially what we need ', Altbeker says, "is a criminal justice system that comes down like a ton of bricks on people who commit violent crimes. (The book describes the way the detective service, along with the specialised units of the police, has been eroded in recent years and highlights the fact that the conviction rate for murder is less than 20%, and for robbery no more than 5%.)
Antony Altbeker is the author of two best-selling books on crime and policing, The Dirty Work of Democracy: A year on the streets with the SAPS (2005) and A Country at War with Itself: South Africa’s crisis of crime (2007). His books have featured in, or been reviewed by, publications around the world, including Newsweek, The Economist, and the British Journal of Criminology, while these and other pieces of his research have been used in courses at universities ranging from Wits and Rhodes in SA, to North Western and Harvard in North America.
Antony has worked in government as a senior policy-maker in the field of criminal justice, first, between 1994 and 1998, for the Minister for Safety and Security, Sydney Mufamadi, monitoring police performance, and then, between 1998 and 2001, as a senior manager in the National Treasury. In the latter role, he chaired the inter-departmental committee responsible for advising Treasury and, through that, Cabinet, on the budgetary needs of the criminal justice system.
Since 2001, he has worked primarily as a researcher, first for the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation, where he wrote Dirty Work, and then at the Institute for Security Studies. As a consultant, he has worked for The Banking Council and The United Nations Office for Drugs and Crime, amongst others.