Crime: Urbanity after dark

The photo above shows the City of Port-of- Spain at night, so peaceful yet what the picture does not capture is the crime that undermines this urban hub. Trinidad and Tobago sure does have some disturbing crime statistics. Most of the crime in the country is associated with the use of illegal firearms and ammunition, gang violence and the illegal drug trade. In some areas it may even be a combination of all of these working together which may result in no good for society. There have been many instances where persons go out at late night parties and nightclubs and when they return to their vehicles they are either held up at gun-point or their cars are stolen prior to that. The instances of cars being stolen are one of the major ways in which criminals have turned illegal activity into a ‘multi-million dollar industry’. Despite the implementation of new technology such as anti-theft devices the vehicular theft industry has become more persistent to relieve persons of their vehicles. In my own family for instance two vehicles were stolen, one at gunpoint where the keys to a 4x4 Van had to be handed over and the other a car, stolen when parked on the street for a short period of time. Both were never recovered by police. This is a frightening experience and it begs the question as to if this is where we would like to be as a society in the 21^st century in which persons must be limited in mobility due to fear of being robbed of their vehicles and live as prisoners in their own homes as well. There is also a cost associated with buying a new vehicle at present as one would have to install an anti-theft GPS tracking system in their vehicles for peace of mind in the event that a robbery was to take place they may have the chance to get back their vehicle. This is an added cost to the already high cost of having to buy a car in the first place. Popular vehicles targeted in Trinidad and Tobago by car bandits are 4x4 vehicles like the Nissan Navarra, the Toyota Hilux and the Ford Ranger which are also targeted for their parts. When we talk about the challenges of urbanization, we can't ignore the changing lifestyle of people in urban areas and this changing lifestyle does contribute to a person's criminal behaviour. An individual's position in the society puts a significant bit of limitation on him, and the person resorts to crime in a bid to adapt to these very limitations. Other than the option of resorting to crime, the person also needs to have opportunities to learn how to commit crime - something which is provided by his surroundings. This works on the basis of Edwin Sutherland's differential association theory which states that a person learns the values, attitudes and techniques required for criminal behaviour on interacting with others. Crime in urban areas is also associated with urbanization and poverty. Social and economic differences in different parts of society and areas classified as slums that exist sometimes next to wealthy well developed areas often causes tensions between society members. The question may arise as to why do ‘they’ have so much and ‘I’ so little? This is in many instances the reason for crime in many areas. Outlined here are just a few reasons stated as to the causes for crimes and the ways in which it is manifested. The problem still exists and has presented itself as a characteristic of urban areas, however all is not lost as new methods globally have been implemented to curb this type of activity; it may take some time to be implemented here in Trinidad and Tobago but only time will tell of how the crime in urban areas and ways in which it may be solved will unveil. If you have taken the time to read this far I would like to say thank you for reading and do leave a comment with your thoughts on the subject.

Listen:

Vybz Kartel- Life Sweet

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxixyBzVW-I

Read more:

http://www.ttcrime.com/stats.php

http://criminology.fsu.edu/crimtheory/sutherland.html