Addressing the culture of criminality in T&T

Introduction;
When I was in secondary school I learnt about the fire triangle, where fuel, heat and oxygen must be present in order for a fire to exist. These three elements were said to form the three sides of a (fire) triangle and if one of these elements was removed, the fire would cease to exist and this is the principle adopted in fire fighting.

Analogy;
I have applied a similar analogy to the principle of crime suppression. Where the three elements that form the sides of the triangle are the criminals, the victims, and the law enforcement and preservation machinery.
It therefore follows, from my perspective, that these are the three main elements that determines the levels of criminality in any society.

The law enforcement & preservation machinery;
This refers to the protective services, the judicial systems, the legislative framework, and the penal (rehabilitative) systems.
I would like to pose a few questions to you regarding these institutions.
1. Do these systems provide prompt, efficient, equitable, and honorable service?
2. Are our protective services functioning with integrity, professionalism and decorum?
3. Is it true that our judicial proceedings are being frustrated by police incompetence, complacency and corruption?
4. Is it fair to say that our justice system operates in an extremely tardy manner?
5. Are these delays systematically designed to facilitate some elaborate extortion scheme?
6. Can it be true that our penal and rehabilitative system encourages a criminal ‘wan Abe’ and macho image syndrome?
7. Can it be construed that our society is being plagued by numerous forms of white collar crimes taking place under the guise of corporate professionalism, in institutions such as medical, financial, legal, business, religious, media, etc.? Time does not permit me to question the numerous deficiencies plaguing these institutions but I believe that most of the society is already aware of them, thus making their mention here redundant.
I must make mention of one final feature in this mind boggling phenomena and that is the widespread importation of foreign used, technologically advanced criminals. These individuals can be equated with the aids virus, being injected into the bloodstream of our country, destroying our civic society.
The corrective measures;
There was a considerable amount of improvement, in the quality of service provided by our law enforcement agency, with the introduction of the rapid response unit, the police complaints authority, community policing,the crime stoppers unit and the recently introduced anti-corruption unit. But presently the rapid response unit seems to be infected with the complacency bug and the effectiveness and efficiency of the complaints authority is questionable.
There were attempts, by the previous A.G. to amend the deficiencies, with respect to the administration of justice but it was met with strong political opposition, in a rather unethical manner from some entities within our society who professed to be, none political. I believe that, in order to competently address this, phenomena, of criminality, our law enforcement and preservation machinery must be able to function, without political interference or any form of undue and decadent influences. The Penal and Rehabilitative systems must become self-sufficient and interdependent.

Culture of criminality;
How can we address the culture of criminality; from the cradle to the grave or from the school bag to the prison? Where does this culture begin? What are the elements that encourage this culture? When does this culture end?
I believe that the culture of criminality begins from the cradle. This cradle being the social, economic, ethical and emotional environment within which the child is raised.
We therefore need to answer the following questions.
1. Is this child the product of an unwanted pregnancy?
2. Will this child experience love and affection in a stable home, whether rich or poor?
3. Does this child have to face stigmatization?
4. What is of importance to this child?
5. How will this child satisfy his or her needs and wants?
6. Where in society can this child go to find a sense of belonging?
7. Can the spiritual threat of damnation affect a child living in hell (poverty is hell)?

The elements that foster this culture of criminality, may have its genesis in commercial entities, entertainment and tradition.
Commercial entities targets the base human instincts of greed, lust and selfishness, e.g. designer clothes, exotic foods, mechanical equipment, appliances, etc.
The particular type of entertainment that is of concern, relates to audio and visual suggestions that sensationalizes acts of immorality, impropriety and general human degradation. This can be seen in films that portray evil in an exciting and thrilling format, e.g. horror movies, thrillers, gangster movies etc. There are also certain kinds of musical lyrics that encourage and support deviant behavior, e.g. gangster rap, rock, dub, even calypsos.
Traditions play a major role in promoting and sustaining the culture of criminality. I am sure you have heard statements like, it runs in the family and that’s how we do it in the hood or ghetto. My family did it so and I just follow suit, e.g. domestic violence, alcoholism, drug abuse, promiscuity etc.

The corrective measures;
This culture of criminality ends with death or when the consciousness of our society is raised to a level of genuine human compassion and patriotism that transcends all barriers of class, colour, creed, religious and political bigotry. In other words if the leaders and influential citizens in our society were to set aside their prejudices and work together in harmony as a team, the problem of criminality will be redressed. We have to move the social consciousness away from the ‘gee-me, gee-me’ and dependency syndrome to a mindset of self-sufficiency and interdependency. I believe in the concept of teach people to fish as opposed to give them a fish. Therefore social groups, schools, national organizations {police etc.} the business community, the media and other communication networks and religious organizations, must display a genuine social conscience by working together in harmony to rescue our country.

The society of victims;
Are these victims poor unsuspecting members of our society? why were they targeted? How are they to protect themselves? Should they be compensated for administrative incompetence? I believe we all know the preventative and corrective measures to be employed so I don’t need to go any further.

Compiled by Rick Maharaj.
25th January 2003.