Latest update March 28th, 2025 6:05 AM
Latest News
- “It will be a very bad day for Venezuelan if they attack Guyana or ExxonMobil”—Rubio declares
- Guyana gets info on U.S. tax evasion allegations against Mohameds, Mae Thomas
- US$35 injected into banking system to address foreign currency shortage—VP Jagdeo
- Citizens to stage protest today against lack of access to information in Guyana
- Guyana vows to stand with U.S.
RCC’s 19-month Statistical Analysis finds…Juveniles 14-17 most likely to commit a crime
Amar Panday, CEO, Rights of the Child Commission
During the period January 2016 to July 2017 the Rights of the Child Commission (RCC), in its Statistical Analysis of the Juvenile Crime Situation in Guyana, found that juveniles between the ages 14 and 17 were most likely to commit a crime.
During the investigation, the RCC found that there were 206 juveniles who had come into contact with the law: 72 females and 134 males.
In the unreleased report, data collected showed that youths between the ages 14-17 were more likely to commit a crime. The data showed that between January 2016 to December 2017, 57 juvenile within that age group would have stood before a Magistrate or a Judge.
The report indicated that the month of July recorded the highest number of cases where juveniles would have been detained for coming into contact with the law.
The report further outlined the five major crimes committed by juveniles. The top five cases, the RCC found were Assault, Break and Enter, Larceny, Murder and Wandering.
The number one issue during the period was Wandering, with 57 cases recorded; most of which were females. In addition, larceny came in second with 38 cases; break and enter with 33 cases; murder with 26 cases; and Assault with 15 cases.
The other crimes recorded are possession of unlicensed firearms, threatening behaviours, narcotics, unlawful wounding, damage to property, buggery, threatening language, and robbery with violence underarms.
In terms of the motive for committing these crimes, the report stated that the five most frequently committed crimes were grouped into two categories: monetary incentives which cover for larceny and break and enter, and non-monetary incentives which cover for assault, murder and wandering.
The data showed a small decline between January 2016 and June 7, 2016, for crimes committed for monetary incentives. However, in the case of non-monetary crimes, the data showed an increase over the same period.
According to Amar Panday, Chief Executive Officer of the RCC, children who had come into contact with the law showed similar characteristics.
“The children who I have encountered at the holding centres (children who would have come into contact with the law) have similar characteristics, all of which centres on multidimensional poverty. They have all, or most of them have, dropped out of school for one reason or the other. Most of them have been subjected to physical or sexual abuse in their earlier life,” Panday disclosed.
He added that Juveniles who had come into contact with the law are also substance abusers. Some of them would use marijuana or cocaine.
Investigative officer at the RCC, Andre Gonsalves said that females were found to be the highest number of juveniles found for wandering. He said that while poverty is one of the main reasons why Juveniles get themselves caught up in crime, there are other contributing factors.
He highlighted a case with a young lady who he said was 14-years-old at the time and was detained for wandering after being raped a few months prior.
Gonsalves said that the young lady was not from an impoverished background, but in her state of mind, after being raped, she began consuming alcohol and “was behaving unbecoming”.
He said that most of the girls detained for wandering would have been trying to escape some form of abuse and as a result ended up in the hands of the police.
Another case he pointed out involved another young lady from the Bath Settlement area who lived with an aunt after her mother’s death. He said that the young girl was forced to do all the work in the home and as a result, the young lady ran away and ended up in State Detention.
In the report, the RCC stated that the family institution is failing to protect the rights of the child and ultimately create an environment for non-violence, non-monetary and victimless crimes to be carried out by persons under 18 years old.
In addition, the RCC also stated that its institution can address the situation by directly engaging the family institution through localised community outreach with specialise programming for each target community and Parent-Teacher Association.
In summary, the recommendation stated that specialised programming should be developed and tailored for the Police Officers and policing groups in certain communities with the aim to create a community support network system for children, youths and parents.
Similar Articles
THE BLUNT OF THE DAY
Sports
Features/Columnists
The PPP has started the intimidation
Peeping Tom… Kaieteur News- In politics, as in life, what goes around comes around. The People’s Progressive Party/Civic... more
The Caribbean: Destined to Grin and Bear the Consequences of Its Self-Created Vulnerabilities?
By Sir Ronald Sanders For decades, many Caribbean nations have grappled with dependence on a small number of powerful countries... more
Weekend Cartoon
