Short-sighted crime solutions

THE EDITOR: In the midst of Ramadan and in the wake of Easter observations, our country continues to be engulfed by an unrelenting wave of violent crime.

In a desperate bid to stem the tide, there have been renewed calls for the implementation of the death penalty and a declaration of a state of emergency (SoE).

While the former has been lauded as a crime prevention method and the latter can be utilised in crime detection, both are ineffective as long-term solutions to our crime scourge.

The effectiveness of a SoE hinges on the suspension of the constitutional rights of citizens, including the right to enjoyment of property, freedom of movement, freedom of thought and expression, and freedom of association and assembly.

Under the SoE the Commissioner of Police can be given the power to restrict the movement, association and business of individuals. Her officers may be empowered to search homes without warrants and arrest without warrant any person who they suspect has acted in a manner prejudicial to public safety.

It is anticipated that with their enhanced powers, the police will be able to remove perpetrators, guns and drugs fuelling crime off the streets.

However, a temporary suspension of rights cannot compensate for the shambolic nature of our overarching crime-fighting strategy. Without a solidification of an effective long-term plan during the SoE, its end will only result in a devastating tsunami of criminality.

The drawback of relying on the death penalty as a crime-prevention method may not be as patent at first but becomes obvious with a brief analysis of our statistics.

Firstly, this penalty is only applicable to murder. While murder is the most egregious type of crime, it only forms approximately six per cent of reported crimes. When added to the abysmal rate of detection of the perpetrators of homicide (13 per cent) and the even smaller number of individuals found guilty per year of the crime, it is apparent that not many murderers are at risk of facing the hangman’s noose.

Criminals are acting with impunity because there has been a moratorium on death by hanging. Those with a predilection towards delinquency would be less inclined to commit any crime if they knew they were likely to be caught, tried expeditiously, found guilty and subjected to lengthy prison sentences.

Until those charged with policy-making and execution can devise and implement an effective crime plan, these demands for extreme measures will be no more than pleas made by the desperate, “full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”

JANELLE JOHN-BATES

via e-mail