UN survey: Gang killings hurt economies in the Caribbean

Feb 8, 2012, 16:13 GMT

New York - Gang-related killings have substantially increased across the Caribbean over more than a decade, inflicting up to 4-per-cent loss to the region's economic activities, the UN Development Programme said in a new survey Wednesday.

The survey said the Caribbean and Latin America, with 8.5 per cent of world population of 7 billion, accounted for 27 per cent of the world's homicides.

The Caribbean Human Development Report 2012, launched in Port of Spain by UNDP, focused on gang activities in the region and recommended measures for governments that it believes could halt gang-related problems.

It said Jamaica's murder rates are the third highest in the world, with about 60 murders per 100,000 inhabitants. Only El Salvador and Honduras have murder rates higher, respectively 66 and 82.1 murders per 100,000 inhabitants, figures cited by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime figures.

In Trinidad and Tobago, murder rates increased five-fold over a decade, to more than 40 per 100,000 in 2008, and then declined to 36 in 2010.

Gang-related homicides in Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago, doubled between 2006 and 2009. In 2006, Jamaica recorded 1,303 homicides, 32.5 percent of which were gang-related. By 2009, the number of homicides had increased by 377; 48.1 percent were gang-related. Crime cost Jamaica more than 529 million dollars a year in lost income to the local economy.

There were 371 homicides in Trinidad and Tobago in 2006, 26.4 percent gang-related. By 2009 the country reported 506 homicides, 34.8 percent gang-related.

It said Caribbean governments can reverse the trend by increasing public institutions, including the criminal justice system, to fight crime and violence and boost preventive measures. It called for providing employment and education for young people on crime prevention.

'Violence limits people's choices, threatens their physical integrity, and disrupts their daily lives,' UNDP Administrator Helen Clark said at the launch of the survey with the presence of Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar.

The survey dealt with crime situation in Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, Saint Lucia, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago.

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