GBV ka dipalo
More than two in three of the gravest crimes against a person are gender-based.
When the police list the most serious offences against the person, and mark which were gender-based violence, most of the list turns out to be GBV. This is not a feeling. It is the record.
68.4%
Offence by offence
| Offence | Recorded | GBV-related | Share GBV-related |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rape | 26 | 26 | Every case |
| Defilement of a child | 13 | 13 | Every case |
| Threats to kill | 16 | 11 | 68.8% |
| Child negligence | 6 | 4 | 66.7% |
| Murder | 8 | 5 | 62.5% |
| Unlawful wounding | 29 | 8 | 27.6% |
| All offences against the person | 98 | 67 | 68.4% |
Source. Botswana Police Service crime brief, 2026. “Share GBV-related” is the number of each offence flagged as gender-based violence, over all recorded cases of that offence. The original brief labelled this column “crime change”; it is a proportion, not a change over time, and we report it as such. Figures are as recorded by police: the real number of incidents is higher, because most gender-based violence is never reported.
Why we count
A figure on a page is a person who was hurt. When more than two in three of the gravest offences against people are gender-based, this is not a scattering of private tragedies. It is a pattern, and a public one.
It is the reason we refuse to whisper. Numbers like these are how a country decides whether to look, or look away. We publish them so no one in Botswana can say they did not know.
If any of this is happening to you, or to a child you know, you do not have to carry it alone, and you do not have to give your name to get help.