Criminal Victimization

• Author: Randy Seepersad/Dianne Williams
• Profession: Criminologist in the Department of Behavioural Sciences at the University of the West Indies, St Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago/Coordinator of the Unit for Social Problems Analysis and Policy Development (USPAP)
• Pages: 19-52

The overall level of criminal victimization in Trinidad and Tobago

sets the context for an examination of citizen security. Victimization,

however, may be assessed in different ways, and contrasting measures

may offer very different indications of the extent of victimization.

Generally it has been found that oficial crime statistics underestimate

the level of victimization when compared to self-reported victimization

data gathered through victimization surveys. A large proportion of

crimes is never reported to the police and thus is not included in oficial

statistics. The 2013 Jamaica National Crime Victimization Survey, for

example, found that less than 15 per cent of all incidents of violent

criminal victimization were reported to the police. Non-reporting of

victimization may occur for a number of reasons. For example, people

may think that the police will not be able to solve the crime or that

the crime is not a serious one people lack conidence in the criminal

justice system, and victims are afraid of retaliation by perpetrators,

etc It is nevertheless the case that oficial crime data are important

in estimating the level of victimization since the most serious crimes

tend to be captured in such data. It is widely accepted, for example, that

murder statistics tend to be fairly accurate because of the seriousness

of the crime. As the seriousness of the crime decreases, or if there is

only a minor loss sustained by the victim, then such crimes may not be

reported and oficial crime statistics become less reliable as a measure

of victimization This chapter will examine oficial crime data in Trinidad

and Tobago for the period 1990–2014,1 and will compare these data to

the indings of selfreported victimization Selfreported victimization

data derive from the United Nations Development Programme’s 2012

Human Development Report on crime and insecurity in the Caribbean.

The examination of general crime trends will be followed by an in-depth

examination of domestic violence, which represents an area which has

been under researched in Trinidad and Tobago.

Oficial crime data for Trinidad and Tobago for the period 

are shown in table  and graphically represented in igures  and

2.2. These data indicate that there are long-term increases over time for

all crimes considered except burglary Within the last ive to six years

Criminal Victimization

20CRIME & SECURITY

however, there have been observed decreases in a number of crimes. For

the period 1990–2014, there has been an average of 248 murders per year,

with that average increasing to  per year within the last ive years On

average for the last 24 years, the number of murders has increased by

13.3 per year. This represents an average annual increase of 8.2 per cent.2

In the case of murders, the rates were relatively stable from 1990 to 1999,

but thereafter increased steadily to 2008. Murders thereafter began to

decline until 2011, after which there was a gradual increase until 2014.

Demographic data for murder victims are available for the period 2001–

13.3 The data indicate that males very consistently outnumber females as

murder victims. When all murders for this period are considered, 89.9 per

cent of the victims were male, while 10.1 per cent were female. Almost

three-quarters (73.7 per cent) of all murder victims for the period were

of African descent. People of East Indian descent made up the next largest

group of victims (17.7 per cent) followed by people of mixed descent (6.6

per cent) and ‘other’ ethnicities (two per cent). Persons of Caucasian (n =

19 or 0.4 per cent), Chinese (n = 15 or 0.3 per cent), and ‘Spanish’ descent

(n = 11 or 0.2 per cent) were numerically the largest groups in the ‘other’

category. With respect to age, 1.7 per cent of murder victims were aged 14

or younger, 28.8 per cent were 15–24, 17.1 per cent were 35–44, 15.8 per

cent were 45–64, and 3.2 per cent were 64 or older.

From 2001 to 2013, during which time 4,624 murders occurred,

data on the ages of the perpetrators were available for 24.1 per cent of

all murders, while data on the sex of the perpetrators were available for

17.5 per cent, and data on the ethnicity of the perpetrators were available

for 21.8 per cent.4 During this period, 94.9 per cent of perpetrators were

male while 5.1 per cent were female. This gender disparity holds for each

year of the period under consideration, with some years having no female

perpetrators. For the same period, 66.9 per cent of perpetrators were of

African descent, 26.1 per cent were of East Indian descent, 6.3 per cent of

mixed decent, and 0.7 per cent of other ethnicities. A similar distribution

holds for each year of the period under consideration. With respect to age,

the majority of perpetrators were between 15 and 24 years of age (34.5

per cent) and 25 and 34 years of age (33.8 per cent). The data also indicate

that 0.6 per cent of perpetrators were 14 or younger, 16.6 per cent were

between the ages of 35 and 44, 12.3 per cent were between 45 and 64, and

2.2 per cent were 65 and older.

21Criminal Victimization

Table 2.1: Crime in Trinidad and Tobago, 1990–2014

MurderWounding/

Shooting

Sexual

OffencesKidnapping

Burglaries

and

Break-ins

Robbery

199084391221137,5463,115

199197453228167,3133,099

1992109420274167,9383,786

1993111608284418,4194,722

1994140533254467,6354,490

1995122501309566,5423,858

1996107505295816,8354,075

1997101370514806,6823,393

1998973195721006,1122,780

1999933404761365,4753,629

20001203875451565,6234,094

20011514995451355,0164,269

20021716556412354,9304,675

20032297846432354,8634,590

20042616435811775,2143,885

20053868017382804,5484,883

20063716579032144,9735,633

20073916808251784,9584,965

20085477717241554,8555,043

20095066897601555,7446,040

20104736236961195,2075,075

20113525356501224,2203,718

20123795799331854,3214,436

20134075425501162,9672,958

2014403558829972,5922,672

Avg. all

years

248.3553.7559.6125.85,621.14,155.3

Avg. last

5 years

402.8567.4731.6127.83,861.43,771.8

Avg.

increase

13.36.925.33.5-206.4-18.5

Source: Crime and Problem Analysis Branch of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service