Belize third most violent in the Caribbean
Posted: 30/07/2010 - 09:58 AM
Author: Adele Ramos - adelescribe@gmail.com
Belize is the third most violent nation in the Caribbean behind Jamaica and Trinidad, according to Dr. Herbert Gayle, Caribbean Anthropologist of Social Violence.
In the summary report of the Male Social Participation and Violence in Urban Belize study published by Gayle and a local team of researchers, led by Local Manager Nelma Mortis, he noted that, “Belize, which though politically Caribbean, is located on the Central American corridor adjacent to Mexico, joined the top ten most violent countries during the shift of the drug trans-shipment route from the Caribbean to the Central American corridor.”
The report points out that whereas Belize had 16 murders per 100,000 in 2000, by 2002 it had experienced its first major spike in murders to 29 per 100,000. The country went into what he describes as “social shock.”
According to police data, that year Belize recorded 86 murders, up from 62 the previous year—a nearly 40% increase in the number of murders reported.
“The following year, it declined somewhat but steadily rose to 32 per 100,000 by 2007, crossing the civil war benchmark and achieving the status of being the second (behind Jamaica) most violent [country] in the Caribbean,” the report outlined.
Trinidad’s murder rate exploded in 2008, and Belize fell to the position of being the third most violent in the region.
Drastic changes are noted over the decade, 1998 to 2008. In 1998, Belize recorded 32 murders; the tally was a record 108 ten years later, according to police data.
The youth of Belize have been traumatized by the climb in the homicide rate. The Male Social Participation and Violence in Urban Belize study was very revealing in detailing to what extent this is affecting Belize’s youth. For instance, it revealed that 91% of boys surveyed had had exposure to gun violence.
Looking at those in the next age group, the research found that 85% of adolescents had seen the dead body of a murder victim; 44% of them had seen at least one person being shot; 11% had themselves been stabbed at least once.
A major problem facing youth is the fact that over 30,000 of primary and secondary school age are not getting an education. The figure averages to nearly 1 in 3 - 6 in every 10 among teenagers.
Of note is that based on prison statistics our newspaper has otherwise reviewed, 6 in 10 of those who return to prison have the following profile: Afro-Belizeans, not educated above Standard IV, unmarried, below the age of 36 and of the Belize District, most of them hailing from the Southside of Belize City.
Belize’s prison population of 1,400 is made up of almost 98% males, with over 300 on remand (awaiting trial) for as long as five years. Over 500 have been imprisoned more than once and the most prevalent charges are drug-related.
Public frustration over the crime situation is worsened by the fact that murder conviction rates are dismal. In 2007, for example, there were 95 murders reported, but only 10 convictions were landed. In 2002, there were 86 murders and a mere 3 reported convictions.
In his article of April 26, 2010 titled, “Violence and the Health of a Nation”, Dr.Bernard E. Bulwer, MD, Director of Medical Services at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital, said that, “Belize had 95 murders in 2009; the KHMH recorded 91 other gunshot victims who showed up alive at the emergency department. Barbados, with a population the size of Belize, complained about their high murder rate totaling nineteen (19) murders in 2009.”
In his commentary, Dr. Bulwer furthermore said: “We have to find a way to ‘outlaw’ idleness. All able-bodied young men and women should be in school or at work. There is no shortage of work to be done in Belize.…
“We need to halt the spread of Belize City slums—where an entrenched sub-culture of violence and the stuff that feeds it, have taken root; places full of ‘mud-ah-waata, London bridges and mosqitto’—places where poor folk end up spending the little money they earn to fill tiny house lots where they can’t plant food or raise chickens—perpetuating an environment and a cycle of deprivation, dependency, and frustration.
“Worse still, too many of our children are being born, but not ‘raised.’ Listen to the words of [Tupac’s] ‘Brenda’s got a baby’—the fallout is devastating. Just look at who bears the brunt of the death statistics or end up in jail.”
This ties right in with another finding in the Gayle et al study: “The data show that parents’ neglect is a critical issue affecting our youth. Over half (59%) of the youth said they have seen neglected children in their community.”
The team hopes that the research will help Belize chart a new course in smoothening out the pot-holed journey the majority of our youth—and especially those on the Southside—are now traveling to adulthood, as their future so much depends on it.
We note that some of the most powerful politicians in Government today who control the largest chunk of the national budget and some of the most influential Ministries are representatives of the Southside—the Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, Dean Barrow (Queen’s Square); Minister of Education and Youth Patrick Faber (Collet); Minister of Works Anthony “Boots” Martinez (Port Loyola); Minister of Housing Michael Finnegan (Mesopotamia).
“Governance needs to have arm and teeth,” said Gayle, urging the Central Political Authority to stop the spread of slums—where people grab crates to build makeshift homes over morass (swamp), right within the City—and to move ahead with decisive action.
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