Crime data in Caribbean in untidy state

Questionable financial donations are provided from businesses and other private sources to fund the election campaign of political parties in the Caribbean, says Director of the UWI Centre for Criminology and Criminal Justice, Professor Ramesh Deosaran.

Speaking in Italy, at a recent United Nations sponsored forum on Inter-regional Crime and Justice Research Institute, Deosaran told the experts “in some Caribbean States, strong suspicions exist over the connections between such election donations,  drug trafficking, and money laundering “Can a government whose election victory is helped by such donations really make laws or implement policies that will affect the business of such donors”, asked Professor Deosaran. On another matter he noted that crime data across the Caribbean was in a very untidy and inefficient state. He noted that there were no systematic ways of reporting crime data across the Caribbean. “The compilation, reporting and dissemination procedures need quick improvements. “The Caribbean now needs very urgently a fresh, modernised understanding of the role of crime data for civil society and good governance,” said Deosaran. He emphasised that given the state of crime and the conditions which relate to such crimes, the Caribbean now needs to be treated as a region separate from Latin America.

Deosaran pointed out that given the increasing thrust towards community policing across the Caribbean, the use of detailed crime data will be of increasing importance, and such data will help serve as a magnet for attracting and sustaining public support for community policing in the Caribbean. “In order to drive effective policing on the basis of strategic intelligence, and especially for crimes such as kidnapping and terrorism, a sophisticated system of crime reporting, compilation, retrieval and dissemination is an imperative,” said Deosaran. He also spoke about crimes against tourists in the Caribbean, and added that the rate of serious crimes in the Caribbean has been a matter of grave concern. “The crime fluctuates very much from one state to another. For example in 2002, the serious crime rate in St Kitts-Nevis was 44 per 1,000 persons; in St Lucia 82 per 1,000 and in Trinidad and Tobago 13 per 1,000,” said Professor Deosaran. He said the need for citizen participation and support for the police in the fight against crime has been repeatedly emphasised.