A British criminologist and Oxford University professor, expressing alarm at T&T's rising murder rate, has called on the Government to institute an urgent, independent investigation into the social and economic reasons for crime, and why the police are not effectively solving murders.
By Sasha MohammedHowever, he also believes that hanging murderers will not stop the spiralling crime problem.
Roger Hood made the comment as he revealed the findings of the first ever detailed study of homicide conducted for this country and the wider Caribbean at a presentation ceremony held at the Faculty of Law Faculty at UWI, St Augustine, on Wednesday night.
Titled A Rare and Arbitrary Fate: Conviction for Murder, the Mandatory Death Penalty and Reality of Homicide in T&T, the study was conducted with the help of Trinidadian researcher, Dr Florence Seemungal, over the period 1998-2002, and extended to 2005, with the input of various local authorities, including the Director of Public Prosecutions, the Chief Justice and the Commissioners of Police and Prisons.
It is a first time analysis of the kinds of murder committed in T&T over this period, and the extent to which they resulted in murder convictions and the mandatory death penalty sentences.
In his presentation to a gathering which included several top attorneys, among them Senior Counsel Douglas Mendes, Hood noted, "We are greatly aware of the seriousness of the problem of homicide in T&T."
Noting the per population rate currently stands at 30 murders per 100,000 people in 2005, Hood said, "This is an enormous number compared to most countries. It is 19 times the rate in England and 16 times the rate in Canada. For a small island like this, this is a terrible problem. Nobody can deny that."
The report's findings include:
- an unabated, sharp rise in gang and drug related killings with a "disturbing" trend that no suspect was identified for 82 per cent of these murders.
- a low proportion of all murders, one in 20, had resulted in conviction, and, in over eight of ten murders, no one was convicted for the crime
- even among those indicted for murder, only one in five defendants were eventually convicted, and after appeals, one in ten of these convictions remained intact.
