Don’t drop the ball, TT

RASHAD CHEONG

THE COUNTRY continues to be in pain following the brutal murder of an innocent young woman, Andrea Bharatt. Many discussions are ongoing in the public domain about what should be done to deal with violent crime in this country and violence against women.

Some popular ideas on social media are bringing back the death penalty, “educating your sons,” and changing the culture that exists in the way men view and treat women. The most prevalent post that I keep seeing on social media is the “educate your sons” one. This statement raises the fundamental question as to whether criminals are born or bred, which has been an ongoing debate in the psychology community.

After doing some research I came across something called the “dark triad” which evaluates people on three main personality traits: narcissism, Machiavellianism and psychopathy. The dark triad is used in psychology to assess how malevolent someone is, and research has shown that individuals who score high on these traits are more likely to commit crimes and cause social distress.

The key similarities between these three personality types are that they tend to lack empathy, are manipulative, callous, and have an absence of morality. According to Wikipedia, all three dark triad traits have been found to have “substantial genetic components.” It goes on to say that the influence environmental factors have when compared to biological factors is more subtle, and it also notes that environmental factors still play a significant role.

My opinion on these findings is that, in general, people who commit serious crimes such as rape and murder lack a conscience, morality, empathy and are just evil people. The thing that most murderers have in common is a lack of empathy, which is what makes them dangerous.

Therefore I believe that while “educating our sons” is obviously very important, there will unfortunately always be people who are just plain evil and no amount of education would sway them from the evil path they are on, simply because they may have had certain experiences along with genetic factors that could have made them into a psychopath or narcissist capable of committing the most heinous crimes without feeling any remorse.

Individuals who commit such serious crimes without remorse and are incapable of abiding by the law need to be removed from society. US President Joe Biden, in a speech in 1993 when he was a senator arguing for the passage of the controversial 1994 Crime Bill, said:

“We must take back the streets. It doesn't matter whether or not the person that is accosting your son or daughter, or my son or daughter, my wife, your husband, my mother, your parents, it doesn't matter whether or not they were deprived as a youth. It doesn't matter whether or not they had no background that enabled them to become socialised into the fabric of society. It doesn't matter whether or not they're the victims of society. The end result is they're about to knock my mother on the head with a lead pipe, shoot my sister, beat up my wife, take on my sons."

Biden effectively said that he doesn’t care why someone is a sociopath, but if they have committed criminal acts they need to be removed from society. The problem that exists in Trinidad is that we don’t have a system right now that efficiently removes dangerous individuals from society when they commit crimes such as rape, firearm and other offences. Those offences need to become non-bailable.

Recently we have seen many concerned citizens justifiably come out to protest Bharatt’s horrible murder, demand justice for her, and protest against gender-based crimes. Women have shared their stories about sexual harassment, assault, rape, and other horrible experiences. Discussions are taking place about toxic masculinity and how to change the culture in which some men believe they are entitled to women’s bodies, have a lack of respect for women and see them as sexual objects. All of these are valid causes and have my full support as changes are long overdue.

To give an idea of how bad gender-based crimes are in this country, here are some findings from an Inter-American Development Bank report on women’s health in Trinidad from 2017:

* Just under one in three or (31 per cent) of women have experienced lifetime sexual violence from a partner and/or non-partner.

* Ten per cent of women indicated they were forced into intercourse at least once with a non-partner through the use of physical or verbal force.

* The majority of such women reported one perpetrator, in many instances a family member or friend. The majority of such experiences (84 per cent) were unreported to police.

To conclude, I think that the murder of Bharatt can be a real catalyst for positive change in TT. The question is do the politicians on both sides and the people of TT have the willpower to make the changes needed to the efficiency of criminal detection and justice, prison reform, and ingrained sexist culture, or will this be just another nine-day wonder?

We need to ask ourselves if the future that we want for our country is one in which women and girls have to be watching their back everywhere they go, one in which they have to walk around with pepper spray to get a small feeling of protection, one in which they are afraid to use taxis for transport.

I believe that this is a pivotal time in our country and that there is great potential for change right now. Therefore I ask all concerned citizens and all of the great patriots who took part in the protests to keep up the pressure. Do not drop the ball.

Rashad Cheong is a Form 5 student of Maraval