Turning up the heat: how a warming climate might worsen violent crime in South Africa

South Africa could experience a thousand more homicides a year, were the temperature to rise by 1C, according to a recent editorial review of the impact of temperature on violent crime. How the weather affects risk for crime is mediated by a host of other factors, the authors note. As temperatures rise, understanding heat-violence mechanisms will become increasingly important in anticipating and mitigating crime hotspots.

Authors

Publication Details

Journal
Human Science Research Council SA
Published
2026-05-23
DOI
https://doi.org/10.14749/32379366
Primary Topic
Wildlife Conservation and Criminology Analyses
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00
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article

Turning up the heat: how a warming climate might worsen violent crime in South Africa

Human Sciences Research Council
Human Science Research Council SA
Wildlife Conservation and Criminology Analyses
article

Turning up the heat: how a warming climate might worsen violent crime in South Africa

Human Sciences Research Council
article en

Abstract

South Africa could experience a thousand more homicides a year, were the temperature to rise by 1C, according to a recent editorial review of the impact of temperature on violent crime. How the weather affects risk for crime is mediated by a host of other factors, the authors note. As temperatures rise, understanding heat-violence mechanisms will become increasingly important in anticipating and mitigating crime hotspots.

Human Science Research Council SA
Climate action
Openalex Percentile: Top 3%
Wildlife Conservation and Criminology Analyses
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