The South African Institute of Race Relations (SAIRR) Tuesday released a statement on the study, saying the number of serious crimes reported to the South African Police Service declined by almost 18 percent between 2002-2003 and 2005-2006.

"This followed an increase of over 30 percent between 1994 and 2003," it said.

Aggravated robberies, which had increased by 58 percent between1994-1995 and 2003-2004, had peaked in 2004 before declining by 10percent in the past two years.

Kerwin Lebone, author of the report, pointed out that there had been a 10 percent decline in the number of serious crimes committed since 1994, when the country held its first non-racial democratic elections.

The murder rate, which peaked in 1995-1996 had subsequently declined by 42 percent, according to the SAIRR.

"The rate of aggravated robbery had declined from a peak of 288.1 per 100,000 people in 2003-2004 to 255.3 in 2005-2006, an 11 percent decrease," the statement read.

However, the murder rate in South Africa was 13 times higher than in the United States and 51 times higher than that of Britain, the SAPA news agency said, arguably one of the world's highest.