Firearm crimes and armed killings are responsible for there being more crime recorded in 2024 than in 2023, reports the Criminal Justice Research and Planning Unit.
During yesterday’s strategic planning meeting in Baobab Towers, Warrens, St Michael, where the unit presented an overview of crime for 2024, senior research analyst Kirt Goodridge said Barbados had to get a handle on gun crime.
“So what we’ve seen in 2024 is that there’s been a very alarming increase in the use of firearms. Not just the murders, but the use of firearms overall. Firearms have become a significant issue in different areas. Up to this morning, there was another shooting,” he said.
Pushed up rates
Goodridge said the people using guns were becoming increasingly younger with the average age of perpetrators falling between 17 and 26 years old. He said it was firearm-enabled crimes which “single-handedly” pushed up crime rates last year.
“If we were to take away the murder rate, crime would have actually gone down last year. So we see the importance of stopping these firearm-enabled crimes. Firearm-enabled murders actually accounted for 34 of the 49 murders that occurred last year, so again, if you take away those 34 firearm-enabled murders, we fall below the threshold of what happened in 2023.
“I want you to pay special attention to the use of firearms because that is an issue that we need to address. We need to figure out how to stop it, stop the importation of [firearms], how to stop them from being used on the streets and how to encourage young men and young women to use means other than firearms to settle conflicts,” he said. To hammer home his point, Goodridge said Barbados’ current murder rate per capita was 18.2 people per 100 000, the highest it has ever been. “On the current trajectory that we’re on right now, it looks like we’re going to be in line for another similar year to last year unless we can get some sort of initiatives and programmes and things in place to curb this crime rate,” he said.
Increases
In giving more statistics, Goodridge said crime had increased by 0.44 per cent. There were 6 228 reported crimes in 2023 compared to 6 236 reported crimes in 2024. He said some of
the notable statistics were increases in major crimes against the person and property assault increases, as well as minor crimes against the person.
In citing increases in statistics, he pointed to drug-related crimes by five per cent, deadly crimes by 16 per cent and white-collar crimes by 271 per cent, fuelled by theft of money.
Goodridge admitted their work was hampered by their parameters as it did not account for unreported crimes or things such as road rage and vehicular manslaughter. However, he said they were in the process of revamping to utilise a different model which would include such information.
Director of the unit, Cheryl Willoughby, said it would take a complete approach to curb crime, as the police could not do it on their own.
“We remain concerned about the number of murders and shootings. And the need now to stop focusing on the incidents of crime and focus on the risk factors, the causes and how we collectively can work together to help those young people in these high-risk communities who are experiencing problems.
“The police cannot always be in a position to prevent crime. They can only respond after it has occurred, so it takes residents and people working together to identify children who may be at risk of committing such crimes. It is important we work collectively and collaboratively, similar to what occurred when we had COVID, when the whole island was activated. We are now at a critical stage as far as citizen security is concerned,” she said.
(CA)
