Trinidad’s murder rate always has an impact on the population to some degree. Not only does it affect the citizens of the island but also puts a strain on the police force, economy and overall safety of the country.
In the past there have been “efforts” put in place to control the murder rate of the island but the murder rate has not decreased significantly but in fact it’s gradually increasing each year! Starting from 2015, there were big jumps from 410 cases to 463 in 2016, then from 463 to 494 in 2017 and just last year in 2018 there were 516 cases of murder. Something more must be done in order to address this escalating situation that is not being properly controlled.
What about the other countries in regards to addressing their murder rate? What is going on in other regions? Some countries may have a similar problem compared to Trinidad, and worse. They also have a problem with managing the current crime/murder rate situation in their countries. What about the countries that have been successful in controlling the murder rate so that it does not get out of hand? Of course there’s no such thing as a country preventing murder cases altogether but the best that a country can do is minimize it as much as possible.
NORWAY
In 2017, at Norway, National Police Directorate has reported 5.3% fewer cases of murder, burglary and robbery compared to 2016. It was also reported that 86% of the murder cases involves a relationship between the criminal and his/her victim. On top of that, burglary also decreased by 25% along with robbery by 4.7%. According to research, police has theorized that targeting and developing the youth and young juvenile delinquents, economy and phone protection are some of the reasons for the decrease.
EL SALVADOR
According to the authorities in El Salvador there was a 57% decrease in the amount of homicides in the country, (end of 2017 had 442 homicides and during the 1st of October the police national chief Howard Cotto reports only 192 homicides were recorded). It is said that some of the reasons for crime included politically motivated gangs who wanted to influence the elections. Therefore, harsher anti-gang strategies and methods used against criminals; forcing them to dwell into other forms of crime besides homicide, brought down the murder rate. Another cause for El Salvador to have a reputation of having a high homicide rate before the drop is because of the relationship between gangs and security forces that existed back then.
El Salvador Recent Drop In Homicides
BRAZIL
In 2018, Brazil reported a 13% decrease in homicide rates (59000-51000cases). According to the following article “And homicides fell by 25% in the first two months of 2019 compared with the same period last year” . It is considered a big deal for Brazil, since crime in the country is usually very rampant and chaotic; this is great news for the public and other countries of the world as well.
There were given reasons to why Brazil had some violent crime in the past; being related to drug trafficking situations. According to the article, it quotes “A key reason was the outbreak of open war between Brazil’s two main drug trafficking organizations, the First Capital Command (PCC) and the Red Command. The two had struck up a truce in 1997. When it fell apart in the middle of 2016, a wave of gruesome attacks and reprisal violence spread from the country’s prisons to its cities.”.
It is believed that the drop was influenced by the new strategy from the ministry of public security and the president Michel Temer to improve cooperation, intelligence and information gathering with the police and authorities along with military deployment to take control of state prisons and certain areas. Perhaps Trinidad should also invest in new strategies in terms of intelligence gathering in order to track down criminal activities involving organized crime?
A lot of the homicide cases are gang, drug or youth related. The youth seems to be one of the most important factors that determine the future of Trinidad and Tobago as a whole, and without the proper guidance the youth may cause a more chaotic society in the future. There should be proper, services and programs put in place to help the youth that comes from harsh households. If some of the youth were abused and have been treated poorly from a bad environment then they will grow up reliving and acting out the negativity they experienced while young. This usually means they are highly likely to become criminals. This shouldn’t be the norm for society.
Since many criminal cases including homicide involves drug-related crimes, there should be more police investigations and intelligence put into specific places that may be suspicious of having drug trafficking. Many gangs are related to drug-trafficking, leading to heavy ‘wars’ that claims many lives in the process. Not only does crime claim many lives, but it has a major influence in the country’s path and on the citizens of Trinidad & Tobago! Some gangs may encourage the youth to become just like them; making them inspired to be juvenile delinquents.
Maybe the citizens of these twin islands should realize that if there is more pro-activity about the crime situation and how it is caused, they’d probably take action when they see criminal activity happening? Citizens can unite to curb crime by being a little more considerate of others, thinking twice before saying something that can ensue an argument, not doing certain things without thinking ahead about the repercussions which can occur, and help others as a whole improving our society for the better.
To control the murder or crime rate in any nation the government has to intervene by doing something constructive or meaningful. Once the action is implemented then the criminals know what to expect, and thereby usually curtail their illegal pursuits. Here, however, the government does nothing, they have in fact run out of any effective measures.
The one remaining possibility of reducing crimes and murders here by restoring the death penalty is a no-no despite that there is a strong demand for doing so by the public.
The government here have decided in the light of what is going here, to give the police a free hand in dealing with all sorts of crimes here, without offering any assistance to the police in dealing with local crimes. They have even refused to take the correct action in ensuring that our justice system is in the hands of a competent and law-abiding citizen.
The impression now given is that they have now decided to use the police, to support their type of governorship which is bordering on this country being operated on the lines of dictatorship.
The relevance of what other nations do to curb their rate of crime is of no interest to our politicians now in the corridors of power here.