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Apr 04, 2013 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom
A very impressive report has just been completed in Trinidad and Tobago. The work of this report was spearheaded by Professor Selwyn Ryan, ably supported by a team of top class academics.
The report entitled No time to Quit: Engaging Youth at Risk made a number of interesting– some may say controversial– findings and recommendations that can form the basis for island-wide debate on the causes of criminality in Trinidad and Tobago and the possible solutions to this issue.
Crime is a serious problem in Trinidad and Tobago, as it is in Guyana. The size of population of the prisons and remand facilities in Trinidad and Tobago, as they are in Guyana, is source of worry. The government in the twin-island republic is keen on not just stemming the high incidence of crime but also getting to the root causes of this behavior, particularly amongst the young people.
Many people will have their own theories about how to address this crime amongst young people but it requires a study to really test many of these theories. The study undertaken by Professor Ryan is one way of moving from beliefs and assumptions to confirmed facts. It is an expert study whose findings and recommendations that would allow for informed policy-making.
Guyana has similar problems to Trinidad and Tobago. There is also in Guyana grave concern about the high incidence of criminality amongst young people. There is equally an abundance of anecdotal theories as to why Guyana has such a high incidence of criminality. Everybody has their own view as to what contributes to crime but those theories need to be tested.
The focus so far in Guyana has been one-sided. It has been mainly about reforming the law enforcement institutions. Fighting crime is however not just about institutions or security reform. It is also about understanding the societal, familial and other contributors to criminal behaviour.
We often hear it said in Guyana that there are social factors that may force someone to turn to a life of crime: poverty, unemployment, poor parenting etc. Examining these factors and how some of them may contribute to criminal behaviour, especially amongst young people is the importance in devising successful strategies to combat crime and help shape a society that is law-abiding.
In the past Guyana has addressed its minds to reforming the security apparatus in order to improve internal security in the country. Guyana for example has had the benefit of a Disciplined Services Commission which made a number of recommendations as to how to improve the functioning of the security sector. There have been accusations by the opposition that many of the recommendations of that Commission are in cold storage.
This is the tragedy of Guyana. It seems as if we go about commissioning things and when the reports are in they are shelved. By the time they are taken off and dusted the situation would have changed so much that it would require another Commission to update those findings.
Guyana needs a holistic approach to criminality. All sides will readily agree to this. Guyana needs to address its mind to both security sector reforms as well as to implementing strategies that would address the economic, social and political factors that encourage criminal behaviour.
Guyana needs to undertake the sort of study that Trinidad has undertaken under the Chairmanship of Professor Ryan. We need our own report into the causes of criminality because police reform is not going to be sufficient in a country in which one third of the electricity generated is stolen off the national grid, in which water meters are bypassed on a massive scale and in which produce and livestock are stolen at an alarming rate.
We have a crisis of criminality that pervades our society and which needs to be studied because as we have seen in some studies what is often assumed to be true, when tested, can prove to be false.
Guyana should commission a study of criminality along the lines of what Trinidad and Tobago has done. It will be costly as the Linden Commission of Inquiry was costly but such a study will turn out to be far more valuable and will certainly be worth every dollar spent because it will establish a factual and verifiable basis for what can only at this stage be deemed assumptions and presumptions about the causes of criminal activities in Guyana.
Mineral and oil rich country borrowing to feed, clothe and house its citizens.
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