BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – THE co-founder of Insight News, Steve Dudley, believes that governments in the region, including St. Kitts and Nevis, need to have a better information gathering process to deal with the growing crimes facing Caribbean nations.
That comment comes against the backdrop of the recent shooting incident in the JN France Hospital, which left an individual dead and the entire populace in shock.
Facing reporters’ question yesterday (Jun. 27) at the conclusion of a US Embassy-sponsored media workshop at the St. Kitts Marriott Resort, Dudley was asked by SKNVibes what recommendations he would give to governments to combat the growing regional problem.
“I think they need to figure out ways in which they can gather and process information. That's information about criminal activities, that’s information about court cases going through, that is information about homicides - who are the victims – and that’s information regionally how this fits into what is going on regionally.”
Putting such information together, Dudley is of the view that by figuring out within the scheme of things and also dealing with it holistically, governments would be better able to know where to channel their resources.
“You do need hard-line approaches in some effects,” he said. “There needs to be swift and clear consequences for people who are breaking the law. But, at the same time, you need to think long term, you need to have the ability to create prevention strategies, socio-economic programmes and other programmes that are hopefully to play a preventative role.”
The journalist noted that “the urban areas are the incredibly dense concentrations of an increasing number of youths who are neither studying nor are they working and are concentrated in smaller and smaller spaces, so you’ve got greater criminal activity. Maybe even greater infrastructure, access to weapons; and you’ve got a greater number of youths that are concentrated in smaller, denser populations. Therefore, you are creating a recipe whereby you are going to have more violence.”
It was recently disclosed that most of the crimes being committed in St. Kitts and Nevis as well as other countries in the Caribbean are perpetrated by youths.
Many of these youths are part of the growing gang-related problems governments are seeking to combat.
Dudley opined that youth crime is a regional problem that is trickling down to the various local economies.
To that end, he added: “This is obviously having a spill over effect into the local economies. It is leading to greater militarization of these criminal groups.”
