Economist advisesSpend more to prevent crime

IN an Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) report Trinidad and Tobago was reported to have the highest crime related costs of Latin America and the Caribbean with high levels of violent crime and one of the lowest detection rates.

Given this finding, economist Marla Dukharan believes more money needs to be spent on prevention.

“Obviously the crime rate is rising, we are not getting value for money,” she told Sunday Newsday.

Dukharan referred to a 2017 IDB publication The Cost of Crime and Violence: New Evidence and Insights in Latin America and the Caribbean. The report found that levels of violent crimes seem to have been decreasing in TT to some extent since 2009 but they remain high compared to those in the rest of the world. The report noted that homicide rates remained fairly low (below 10 per 100,000) until 2000 but have been climbing steadily since.

Dukharan also pointed out that the report noted this country’s detection rate was the lowest in the region at 13 per cent and has been declining since 2000. In the case of murder, the detection rate averaged 64.8 per cent between 1980 to 1999 and then plummeted to 13 per cent in 2013. The report also found in 2013 the rate of victims of African descent was more than double the national average and more than triple that of East Indian victims with homicides the highest among males in the 15-29 age group.

Dukharan said given the scale of the local crime problem there is not enough research and analysis being done on the issue of crime and how it affects people’s lives, business and the economy.

She said, however, the whole point of collecting data and doing analysis is in order to shape the policy response to the problem but research in other areas, such as broader macroeconomic problems, and sound policy was being ignored by successive governments and this was a disincentive to further research.

The IDB report also found that in the Caribbean, this country had the highest portion of firms paying for security at 85 per cent.

Dukharan said crime would also have an impact on citizens’ productivity as well as their physical and mental health.

On the impact on healthcare, Dukharan said there is no data on the cost but added the homicide rate is a function of both the frequency and severity of the crime itself, and also the quality of healthcare.

“There are countries that have higher crime rates than we have but they have lower homicide rates than we have. And the reason for that is if the health sector was more robust and more effective then not every shooting victim becomes a homicide statistic. In Trinidad, because of the weak healthcare system, you are more likely to succumb to your injuries as result of a shooting, stabbing and so on than in other countries where the health care system is more robust and more effective.”

Dukharan quoted the IDB report that TT has the highest crime related costs in Latin America and the Caribbean at US$1,189 per capita per annum and the third highest as percentage of GDP at 3.52 per cent, according to 2014 data.

“And it stands to reason that it has gotten worse since then.”

The IDB report included the findings from the United Nations Development Programme’s Caribbean Human Development Report 2012 that in TT where government expenditure on prevention was the highest in the subregion for every dollar spent on security only 15 cents is spent on prevention, and Dukharan pointed out in other countries the reverse is true.

“So obviously that is a clear sign we do not listen to the advice of the experts that you need to be spending more of your budget on prevention.”

Asked where more of the spending should be channeled Dukharan said, with 15 cents on the dollar on prevention, the literature and all the international studies makes a clear policy recommendation that relatively more money should be spent on prevention. She said more should be spent on preventative measures as opposed to reactive. She described reactive measures as incarceration and arming police while preventative measures would include more after school, sport and music programmes that take youths off the street who do not have proper supervision at home or come from vulnerable or violent homes.

“Those are the kinds of things that we need to be spending more money and time on. Because these are the kinds of things that help with prevention in the longer term.”

She also explained prevention is a multi-faceted type of approach and involves not just the security services but also communities and families.

“You have to support vulnerable families, single parent homes for example, children in vulnerable areas.”

She said there are NGOs and the IDB that have done work and going into high crime areas to support vulnerable families and children.

She gave the example of Grenada which has the highest youth unemployment rate in the Caribbean at roughly 40 per cent but has one of lowest crime rates and homicide rates. Dukharan said she spent some time in Grenada last year and asked the governor of the Central Bank of the Eastern Caribbean what accounted for that statistic. She recalled he told her part of it was cultural because they were small, agriculture-based and have a strong sense of community, respect for elders and for each other and for the environment.

“So it cannot be underestimated or understated how important the community is and love and culture in terms of how we help and support one another. And I think that is one of the things that is severely lacking in Trinidad and Tobago. We do not have that very strong sense of community, togetherness and support in the vulnerable communities in particular. But even in a broader overall sense of Trinidad.”

Asked about the supposed direct link with unemployment and crime, Dukharan pointed out TT’s highest recent homicide rate was in 2008, a record high of 550 murders, when the country had double digit growth; the murder toll for 2017 was 445 according to police statistics.

“There isn’t a direct link between growth or recession and unemployment and crime in this country,” Dukharan said.