Foreword

• Author: Ramesh Deosaran
• Profession: Director of the Centre for Criminology and Criminal Justice at The University of the West Indies, St Augustine
• Pages: 15-16

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CRIME, DELINQUENCY AND JUSTICE

foreword

The post-Columbian history of the Caribbean is a story of struggle. For centuries

after the Europeans came, there was the struggle between native peoples and

colonisers for the bounteous fruits of these beautiful islands. There was also the

struggle for ethnic and racial coexistence. Both struggles proved tragically one-

sided, and by the time of the War for Independence in the United States, there

was not much left of what had been native life. There was, however, a large

population of slaves, former slaves, and workers dominated by a small elite of

landowners and colonialists. The struggle thus shifted toward one in which the

classes of labour fought for their social and economic equality. In most places

this meant that everyday people had to be willing to fight to break free of the

European governments that held the island as a colony. Yet even after success at

the struggle for nationhood, the quest for political rights became a struggle for

social justice. That struggle continues today.

Side-by-side with this history of political and social struggle — perhaps even

one of its driving forces — has been a longing for personal safety. Many brave

men and women were willing to sacrifice their personal safety in the short term

for the vision of a deeper and more substantial future foundation of safety for

them and their children.

This book is about crime and justice in the Caribbean. In a sense, therefore, it

is about a location on the globe, an archipelago that spans an arc from mainland

Florida to the very edge of Venezuela, forming an island bridge between North

and South America. Yet in perhaps a greater sense, this book is about an idea, that

these islands and peoples, diverse as they are in language, local history, custom,

and governance, share a common framework for understanding problems of crime

and justice. The book is an impressive series of papers by an imposing list of

scholars, delving into common themes about promoting safety and advancing

justice. We might say that this collection of studies, taken as a set, demonstrates

the usefulness of an idea of Caribbean Criminology.

The papers ably maintain the historical theme of “struggle” to which I have

referred, most of them without ever using the word directly. Sometimes the struggle

is to find a way to protect vulnerable populations such as children. Sometimes

the struggle is to find a way to promote justice in the context of difficult

Todd R. Clear, Distinguished Professor

John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York