Caribbean People Most Worried About Crime

Category: Island Talk Created on Thursday, 21 July 2011 06:13 Written by Jeevan Robinson

Crime is a major concern for many Caribbean people according to a soon to be released United Nations Victimisation Survey reviewing the safety concerns of the region’s people.

A total of 11,207 people were polled from Antigua, Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, St Lucia, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago. The question that was presented to them was, "Do you think that crime is a major social problem?"

Many of the respondents have reported a lack of confidence in many of the agencies that are responsible for combating crime in the various territories surveyed.

A copy of the report as seen by MNI Alive, shows some very interesting results. The report will show that in the area of insecurity perceptions, St Lucia comes out on top at 42%, Trinidad and Tobago at 38%, and Jamaica at 26%.

The survey was conducted on behalf of the UNDP’s Caribbean Human Development Report whose objective it was to find out why citizen security is such a priority in the region.

The UNDP have said that the survey was designed to reflect the key demographic characteristics of the adult population of the participating countries based on the composition of the most recent population census of each country. The survey was conducted between November 2010 and February 2011.

UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative, Dr Marcia De Castro said, "We are not all equal and security is not equally distributed in any of our countries and that is very important. There are a number of challenges out there... if the level of insecurity continues it will undermine the gains the country has made in terms of economic growth, stability, being a desirable destination for investments and business."

Photo Credit To Caribbean Crime Prevention International