Juvenile Justice

• 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: 53-74

Youth violence, as well as the victimization of youths, represents a

special area of concern with respect to citizen security. Media reports,

often based on isolated events, give the impression that youth crime is

spiralling out of control in the Caribbean, and in Trinidad and Tobago

speciically One of the dangers of this is that the media may affect

public perceptions, which in turn may fuel governmental strategies to

deal with the issue of youth violence. Such strategies, almost invariably,

call for increasing levels of punitiveness. Evidence gathered in this

chapter indicates that youth violence is the exception rather than the

rule, even among institutionalized youths in Trinidad and Tobago.

Despite this, the headlines that appear in the news media attest that the

public’s perception of youth violence may be at odds with the reality.

For example, a headline in the Trinidad Express on December 9, 2010

stated ‘Gang violence in school’ while another in the Guardian on April

24, 2011 proclaimed: ‘Two choices: Educate or incarcerate them’. Yet

another headline in the Guardian on February 18, 2011 stated: ‘Form

one student beats his teacher’. While such captions may improve

readership, and while such events are newsworthy, youth violence is not

as commonplace in Trinidad and Tobago as the public is led to believe.

This chapter will draw upon available empirical evidence to assess

the nature of youth crime and violence in Trinidad and Tobago and,

among other things, will assess whether or not public perception is

in line with the evidence. This chapter hopes to alter the narratives

about youth violence and provides a platform upon which reasonable

interventions may be developed and utilized where necessary. It will be

argued, consistent with the empirical data presented, that a preventative

as opposed to a reactive approach to reducing youth violence may be the

most cost-effective and appropriate approach for Trinidad and Tobago.

It will be further argued that, even where preventative approaches

fail, policymakers must use incapacitative strategies only in the most

extreme of cases, and only as a last resort where youths are concerned.

Indeed, much criminological and psychological evidence indicates that

many youths are amenable to rehabilitation, and more so than adult

offending populations Mofitt  Inappropriate labelling of youthful

Juvenile Justice

54 CRIME & SECURITY

offenders reduces available alternatives and encourages adaptations

which may force youths into a criminogenic lifestyle.

Data from Trinidad and Tobago indicate that youth delinquency

may start even while children are in primary school. Vidya Lall (2007)

conducted a study in which she interviewed 589 standard three students

between the ages of 9 and 11. Data were collected in March 2006. This

study was motivated by the recognition that internationally and locally, it

appears that children are engaging in delinquent and even illegal action at

decreasing ages. Indeed, Lall (2007, 157) writes:

In Trinidad and Tobago and the Caribbean generally from the data

gathered thus far combined with media coverage and oficial police

statistics, we are witnessing increasing acts of sexual deviance,

substance use and abuse (that is, use of illegal drugs, smoking, drinking

alcohol), students going to school armed with weapons (e.g., guns,

knives, cutlasses), wounding/physical assaults/stabbing with intent –

many now ending in death in and outside many of our formal school

settings.

Lall (2007) assessed delinquency using a 12-item self-report scale.

Respondents were asked to indicate the extent to which they had engaged

in each of the speciied delinquent acts within the previous six months

The most prevalent acts were being in a istight  per cent and

disobeying and answering back a teacher  per cent Fortyive per cent

of the students said that they drank alcohol, while two per cent admitted

to using illegal drugs, and seven per cent admitted to smoking cigarettes.

Seventeen per cent said that they stole something, 19 per cent skipped

school or class, 26 per cent fought using a weapon, while 27 per cent said

that they used force to get something. Forty-four per cent indicated that

they got into trouble for not doing their homework. A summary of these

indings appears in igure 

Lall (2007) examined gender differences in the prevalence of

delinquency and found that, while boys were on average more delinquent

than girls, the girls were not very far behind the boys for some categories

of delinquency. Seventy-two per cent of the boys and 66 per cent of the

girls disobeyed their teachers, while 74 per cent of boys and 64 per cent

of girls were involved in istights  per cent of boys and  per cent of

girls threatened to hit someone; 53 per cent of boys and 45 per cent of

girls drank alcohol; 33 per cent of boys and 27 per cent of girls used force

to get something; 35 per cent of boys and 26 per cent of girls fought using

a weapon; 22 per cent of boys and ten per cent of girls stole something;

and three per cent of boys and one per cent of girls used illegal drugs.

These data are graphed in igure  The indings of Lall  are