The Caribbean Region vs. Mexico

The Caribbean Compared

As geographers we need to look beyond the raw statistics of the increasing crime wave and murders.

 The Caribbean like Latin America is now plagued by ever increasing criminal activity, murder, being a major one. Time and space compression the processes of globalization may have its good elements but it has also being utilized by the criminal underworld to propagate crime, violence and murder in the Caribbean region. 

The Caribbean in recent times has been categorized as the most murderous region in the world with an average homicide rate of 22.9 per 100,000 citizens in 1990’s (Caribbean Human Development Report. 2012).

 

Before 1990 homicide rates in region were below the global average but this changed post 1990.

Harriott. 1996 crime in Jamaica since independence came in three transitional phases.

1.              Property Crimes

2.              Drug trafficking

3.              Transnational organized crime and gang conflicts

The second and third phases have dramatically increased violence and homicides this has been the trajectory over time for most Caribbean states (Caribbean human development Report. 2012).   

The location of the Caribbean makes it geographically susceptible to criminal influences from Latin and South America, and transshipment for drugs and weapons to Americas and Europe.

In addition, the lower levels of development and economic growth in the Caribbean have caused a lot of people, mostly young and male to turn to the drug trade for a means of economic stability. This has caused increased number of weapons in the countries and in the hands of the youth and loyalty to gangs causing violence with other gangs, and also the state, which tries to stop them.

64% of the people involved in crime is youth, between 18 and 30 years, and a large portion of this percentage is male, who are usually economically immobile.  Predators and most victims are usually male.

In both the Caribbean and Mexico there has been a steady increase in murders over the past few years with some Caribbean countries even surpassing Mexico’s rate. In both regions prevalent crimes are gang and transnational organized. However, murders rates vary within sub regions based on geographic control of gangs (turf). In Mexico states with highest rates are border states. Murders in Mexico are not concentrated in most the cities with the highest densities, where as, in the Caribbean, particularly Trinidad and Jamaica, a large percentage of murders are in the towns with the highest population densities.

References:

Crime Violence and Development: Trends, Costs and Policy Options in the Caribbean. March 2007, Accessed 15 November 2013. www.unodc.org/pdf/research/Cr_and_Vio_Car_E.pdf

Anthony Harriot, Lead Author Caribbean HDR. Caribbean Human Development Report, 2012.  Human Development and the shift to better citizen security. Accessed 1 November 2013. www.undp.org/.../Latin%20America%20and%20Caribbean%20HDR/C_bea...

Map of Caribbean and Latin America Region. TransGriot Blog. Accessed 02 November 2013. http://transgriot.blogspot.com/2010/12/new-day-for-transpeople-in-caribbean.html

Crime and Violence in the Caribbean, An analysis, Caribnation Television. Published on 23 October 2013.              Accessed 01  November 2013. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wV3votjsuFE