The government should focus attention on all forms of armed violence rather than exclusively on house and business robberies, the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation said on Tuesday.

"We are concerned that the crime statistics will be used once again to motivate for focus on the trio robberies [house, business, car robberies] when there is clearly a need for a renewed and comprehensive engagement by government with the overall problem of violent crime," said CSVR researcher David Bruce in a statement.

He said this after the 2008/09 crime statistics revealed increases of 27.3 percent in household robberies, 41 percent on business robberies, and 5 and 14.4 percent on car and truck hijackings.

This, says Bruce, could overshadow other forms of violent crimes like incidents of sexual violence which were usually committed with the use of weapons like guns and knifes.

"The government must focus on all armed violence, not just trio robberies. This implies focusing on the overall problem of armed violence... involving violent crimes committed with guns or knives, as well as sexual violence," he said.

On releasing the crime statistics, Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa said sexual offences had increased by 10.1 percent, but added that the increase could be attributed to changes in the legislation whereby new categories were added to the category of sexual offences.

"CSVR recognises the seriousness of the problem with trio robberies. However we would caution against an exclusive focus on these robberies [because] at this point they make up 38 percent (47 273 cases) of aggravated robberies in crime statistics and therefore do not make up the bulk of aggravated robberies," said Bruce.

He said prioritising 'trio' robberies reflected the fact that wealthier South Africans were prioritised more than their poorer counterparts as they tended to complain more than poor South Africans.

Focusing on violent crime generally and disarming criminals would help reduce murder, rape and aggravated robbery cases, said Bruce.