Crime and Caribbean youth at risk: reclaiming exclusive Caribbean Societies

• In Event: Roundtable: Caribbean Journal of Criminology Roundtable

Abstract

Large portions of Caribbean youth face structural inequalities that are embedded within societies that exclude, and are correlated with anti-social attitudes, behaviour, propensity and opportunity for violence and criminal offending. These regional forces of exclusion include (1) education systems that recycle poverty; (2) law enforcement that has little regard for the human rights in police: citizen encounters; (3) family and community structures that are too weak to offer effective informal controls; (4) largescale unemployment that reduces legitimate opportunity structure; (5) stigmatisation from wider society that directly and indirectly denies employment opportunities and; (6) penal systems that are retributive in nature giving offenders, if released no hope of becoming productive members of society again. These forces of exclusion impact disproportionately upon specific groups within Caribbean societies contracting avenues for social mobility through legitimate means. This paper seeks to place these exclusionary forces within their historical context and suggest pathways towards inclusion.

Author

• Corin Bailey, Centre for Criminal Justice and Security, University of the West Indies