Dr. Ralph Gonsalves, prime minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, has stated that blaming poverty alone for crime in the Caribbean is a “narrow, economic argument.”
Tuesday morning, Gonsalves urged the public not to believe that criminals are the responsibility of society, as they are liable for themselves.
He added that some commentators frequently assert, “Oh, the reason this murder was committed was because this man came from a poor family (or community).”
But he asked, if 20% of a country’s population lives in poverty, how is it that 20% of the same population is not a criminal “if poverty is the lone or primary cause.
“However, you lack that, so obviously something is absent.
“What is missing is the fact that this person, almost always voluntarily, decides to pull the trigger and kill someone else.”
He reiterated that he does not believe that criminals devalue life, because if they did, they would commit suicide instead of perpetrating homicides.
Even when members of the same community commit violent offenses outside of their hometown, there is a “sense of social solidarity” in many Caribbean communities, according to him.
“The question is how to increase this level of national solidarity.”
According to him, this sense of community is frequently undermined by a political model founded on “dog-eat-dog capitalism.”
He believes there is a misconception that crime is a one-dimensional problem, when in actuality it is a “multi-faceted (one) requiring a total societal approach.”
On the first day of the symposium, Monday, Gonsalves stated that most criminals choose a life of crime.
They chose to be murderers and kill because they want to make easy money dealing drugs and operating crime…In order to maintain their status in the community, some of them develop a fixation with firearms.
“Everyone here is aware that what I am saying is the absolute truth. What I am discussing here is being discussed in taverns throughout Trinidad and Tobago. The time has come to discuss it here.”