The Report entitled Human Development and the Shift to Better Citizen Security shows that homicide rates - including gang-related murders - in some Caribbean countries are exceedingly high by world standards and have worsened over time in most of the assessed countries.
The Report analysed seven English and Dutch-speaking Caribbean countries:
- Antigua and Barbuda
- Barbados
- Guyana
- Jamaica
- Saint Lucia
- Suriname
- Trinidad and Tobago
With respect to Trinidad & Tobago the report notes that the murder rates increased five-fold over a decade in Trinidad and Tobago, peaking beyond 40 per 100,000 in 2008 and then declining to 36 in 2010.
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| Helen Clark, UNDP Administrator |
“Violence limits people’s choices, threatens their physical integrity, and disrupts their daily lives,” said UNDP Administrator Helen Clark in a speech at the launch of the report.
“This report stresses the need to rethink our approaches to tackling crime and violence, and providing security on the ground," she added.
The report stresses that street gangs are major obstacles to development and social cohesion, since they affect quality of life, erode human and social capital, and divert substantial resources away from more productive uses.
The report documents recent research estimating that for every additional “gang” in a community, homicide rates increased by about 10 per cent. In both Jamaica and Trinidad & Tobago gang-related homicides almost doubled from 2006 to 2009, the report states.
In 2006, Jamaica experienced 1,303 homicides of which 32.5 per cent were gang-related. By 2009, the number of homicides had increased by 377 and 48.1 per cent of the total figure was gang-related.
In 2006, Trinidad and Tobago experienced 371 homicides, 26.4 per cent of which were gang-related; by 2009 the country reported 506 homicides, 34.8 per cent of them classified as gang related.
“Insecurity leads to loss of skilled and educated citizens. Education and health care suffer because of diversion of scare resources to control crime.
“Tourism is vulnerable too, while tourists expend their money in locations where there is less threat to personal safety,” the report says.
As an example it notes that Jamaica incurred US$529 million in annual economic costs because of crime. In Trinidad and Tobago, the report claimed that a one per cent reduction of youth crimes would boost tourism revenues by US$35 million per year.
The report says violent crime with continue to impact the region negatively, especially in terms of capital and population flight.
“This report stresses the need to rethink our approaches to tackling crime and violence, and providing security on the ground," she added.
The report stresses that street gangs are major obstacles to development and social cohesion, since they affect quality of life, erode human and social capital, and divert substantial resources away from more productive uses.
The report documents recent research estimating that for every additional “gang” in a community, homicide rates increased by about 10 per cent. In both Jamaica and Trinidad & Tobago gang-related homicides almost doubled from 2006 to 2009, the report states.
In 2006, Jamaica experienced 1,303 homicides of which 32.5 per cent were gang-related. By 2009, the number of homicides had increased by 377 and 48.1 per cent of the total figure was gang-related.
In 2006, Trinidad and Tobago experienced 371 homicides, 26.4 per cent of which were gang-related; by 2009 the country reported 506 homicides, 34.8 per cent of them classified as gang related.
“Insecurity leads to loss of skilled and educated citizens. Education and health care suffer because of diversion of scare resources to control crime.
“Tourism is vulnerable too, while tourists expend their money in locations where there is less threat to personal safety,” the report says.
As an example it notes that Jamaica incurred US$529 million in annual economic costs because of crime. In Trinidad and Tobago, the report claimed that a one per cent reduction of youth crimes would boost tourism revenues by US$35 million per year.
The report says violent crime with continue to impact the region negatively, especially in terms of capital and population flight.
It adds that crime erodes confidence in the future development of countries and reduces the competitiveness of existing industries and services by imposing burdensome security costs on them.
KEY RECOMMENDATIONS:
- High rates of violent crime can be turned around by achieving a better balance between legitimate law enforcement and preventive measures, with a stronger focus on prevention
- Governments should create or invest more in units to address gender-based violence and adopt more preventive measures to ensure that violence against girls and women is no longer tolerated
- Because crime harms social cohesion, Caribbean nations must better address youth violence and street gangs, whose crimes are rarely prosecuted
- Public security requires community collaboration. Youth organizations and groups advocating for women’s rights, victims’ rights, and human rights should become more active, and Governments should commit to more actively engaging citizens
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