Psychologist: TT a country in fear

CAROL MATROO

TRINIDAD and Tobago is a nation living in fear.

This was the evaluation of psychologist Anna-Maria Mora on how crime was affecting the psyche of people.

“We are a nation in trauma, and when you are in trauma you are hyper vigilant,” Mora said yesterday. “It means you are watching over your shoulder all the time. You have to protect yourself because you are afraid.”

She said people were shutting off parts of their activities which they were accustomed to because they feared for their lives and the lives of their families.

“They have to be inside by a certain time. I drove from Port of Spain through Tunapuna to Arouca and I didn’t see a maxi (taxi) on the road. It might have been about 10 pm and there were people standing on the street, but no maxis. Maxi taxi ope6rators are fearful to work at nights for fear of being held up.”

President Paula-Mae Weekes, during her inaugural speech on Monday, said she too had been a victim to crime after losing two cars to thieves. Independent Senator David Small said crime was out of control, adding that everybody was inside by 5.30 pm, “safely behind burglar bars.”

He said that fear left him whenever he left the country, when his “brain suddenly relaxes immediately as the aircraft takes off.”

Mora said she would not say that criminals had no fear of the law as they carried out their brazen acts of robbery and murder, but it may be more that they were afraid to die.

“They would prefer to kill somebody than have somebody kill them. I do not think it is so much fear than it is that they do not care. They have lost their sense of humanity because I think of these people and who they were when they were six and seven years old, playing in the rain or riding their bicycle. I don’t think at that age they would contemplate they would be getting into a life of crime.”

She said when asked what they wanted to be when they grew up, some children replied a robber.

“I was reading about the school-to-jail pipeline and if we have that, obviously that is something that is not right. Young people and children are being prepared for jail and we are not putting things in place. People are now looking at teenage girls and boys as potential criminals.”

The school-to-prison pipeline starts in the classroom. When combined with zero-tolerance policies, a teacher’s decision to refer students for punishment could mean they are pushed out of the classroom—and much more likely to be introduced into the criminal justice system.

Mora said Government had to make more psychological counselling available to people affected by crime, especially children. She said School Support Services and the Witness and Victims Support Unit did not have the resources to counsel victims.

Psychologist Kelly McFarlane said for every level of crime, there was a level of trauma.

“Trauma affects the brain, it affects our behaviour, our ability to function and to cope. High levels of stress affects our ability to cope with everyday problems. People would probably be more suspicious and more fearful,” she said.

McFarlane said one fear was that people became so used to crime they were not even recognising it.

“I see so many people are being robbed and somebody might be right in the vicinity and they go about their business like this sort of thing happens, almost like it is the norm. That is one fear for me that we end up with that sort of dynamic,” she said.

McFarlane said fear may breed a generation of people less compassionate and more violent, people felt they were entitled to what they wanted.

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