SPINNING STORIES

But this is political weaselling of the worst sort. It is true that the type of psychotic murderer who killed Sean can come up in even the most well-ordered society. This is because such psychopathology is often rooted in an unbalanced brain chemistry that occurs in the womb. In other words, the baby comes into the world with an impaired ability to relate to other people. This deficiency helps create an individual who never forms real relationships, or who becomes a sociopath, or a psychopath. But none of this means that parents can be blamed, since an unbalanced home does not sufficiently account for the production of even psychotic murderers.

If a child with psychopathic tendencies is lucky enough to be born into a home with well-off and educated parents, then the child may get treatment that will enable him or her to live a normal enough life. However, the very factors which lead to genetic or hormonal defects also make it more likely that such a child will be born into a home where the parents are poor, uneducated, and themselves psychologically unbalanced. But this is hardly their fault, as Ms Seukeran asserts, and it is the State which then has to provide avenues to help such children.

This is because social factors — the peer group, the school, the wider culture — are more pertinent in the production of violent youths. So, while it is true that the Government cannot be blamed for making Sean’s killers, it is entirely untrue to suggest, as Ms Seukeran did, that the government has no responsibility for the crime rate. After all, it is Government policies which affect schooling, economic growth, housing, social assistance, and so on. These are all determining factors in a country’s crime rate. An education system which caters more for the better-off than the deprived, as ours does, is more likely to produce young men with no options but crime. An economy which is highly dependent on one legitimate sector, as well as one illegitimate one, sets the stage for violent and white-collar crime. And how does Ms Seukeran explain that violent crime is concentrated in those very areas which are the base of the political party she serves — a party which has run the country for most of the past five decades? How does she explain that so many of the country’s murders are linked to the Unemployment Relief Programme (URP), which is entirely in Government hands?

Rather than indulging in spin, the Government should admit, even if only to itself, that its policies have played a significant part in producing the present crop of criminals. After all, it is only when those persons charged with running the country face their administrative deficiencies that they will take serious steps to repair them. Perhaps then we will see the crime rate go down.