Guyanese worried most about robbery, night-time break-ins

Feb 19, 2012 News

– UN reports cites corruption in Caribbean police forces

A United Nations report shows that criminal violence is taking its toll on Caribbean countries, with Guyanese mostly concerned about robbery and night-time break-ins.
The Caribbean Human Development report, released last week, shows that the increasing crime rate is threatening economies and livelihoods in Caribbean countries. It has called for the right mix of policies and programmes to tackle the problem.
The report was prepared by the UN Development Programme (UNDP). It states that with the exception of Barbados and Suriname, homicide rates – including gang-related killings – have increased substantially in the last 12 years across the Caribbean, while the numbers have been falling or stabilizing in other parts of the world.
The report shows that the fairly high police densities across the region suggest that, with the possible exception of Guyana and Jamaica, coverage is not a particularly acute problem.
Perhaps the more challenging issue is the effective use of these human resources, the report stated, adequate police strength and density are conditions for effective service delivery and the protection of the population, but they are not sufficient conditions.
The effectiveness and efficiency of even the largest police services enjoying the best resources may be compromised by corruption, the report noted.
“The performance and values dimensions of legitimacy can be insidiously undermined by corruption,” the report suggests.
It notes that one of the major barriers to the adoption of more effective and efficient crime control methods and the meaningful inclusion of citizens in police operations is corruption.
“Corruption is particularly devastating to crime prevention and control efforts because of the detrimental effect that it has on citizen perceptions and subsequent actions,” the report stated.
One of the challenges facing police forces in the Caribbean, as elsewhere, is the necessity to improve accountability mechanisms.
“Accountability has the potential to enhance performance, integrity and regard for the rights of citizens,” the report stated.
Latin America and the Caribbean are home to 8.5 per cent of the world population, yet the region accounts for some 27 per cent of the world’s homicides, according to the report, which was launched in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago.
The report – the first UN Human Development Report focusing on the Caribbean – is the result of extensive consultations with 450 experts, practitioners and leaders and reflect a large-scale survey with 11,555 citizens in the seven assessed countries in region: Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, Saint Lucia, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago.
“Violence limits people’s choices, threatens their physical integrity, and disrupts their daily lives,” said UNDP Administrator Helen Clark at the report’s launch.
“This report stresses the need to rethink our approaches to tackling crime and violence and providing security on the ground,” said Miss Clark. “We need to follow approaches that are centered on citizen security and address the causes of this recent increase in violent crime, including social, economic, and political exclusion.”
Although murder rates are exceedingly high by global standards, Caribbean nations can reverse the trend, states the report, which calls for governments to beef up public institutions to tackle crime and violence while boosting preventive measures.
Among its recommendations, the report calls on Caribbean Governments to implement youth crime prevention through education, as well as provide job opportunities that target the marginalized urban poor.
Because crime harms social cohesion, Caribbean nations must better address youth violence and street gangs, whose crimes are rarely prosecuted, the report adds.
As for the impact on the region’s economies, estimates by the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) show that the cost of gang-related crime is between 2.8 per cent and four per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) in the region through both the cost of policing and as a result of lost income from youth incarceration and reduced tourism.
According to the report, crime costs Jamaica alone over $529 million a year in lost income. In Trinidad and Tobago, a one per cent reduction in youth crime would boost tourism revenue by $35 million per year. For every additional “gang” in a community, homicide rates increased by about 10 per cent, according to research featured in the report.

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