The Study of ‘Root Cause Statistics’ Is Making Some Caribbean Countries very successful in Tackling Crime and Other Socio Economic Problems, including the COVID Pandemic.
The psychology of those individuals that commit gun-violence crime, are at the core of solving the ‘Socio-Economic’ challenges that plagues many Caribbean countries.
The following is a review of the statistics associated with violent crimes in the Caribbean
The Gang Psychology
Why do young men feel they need to be a part of a gang ?
As far-back as most old-timers can remember Belize was never a place of gangs, there was ‘hanging-out or base-out’, somewhere in the local neighborhood, but being a criminal group was not the focus, neither was it done to feel safer. It was just a group that either played-ball together, or did young-boy stuff together.
Fatal Shooting In Dangriga Is 15 Year Old Joshua “Mundo” Flores
Gang-Type activities in Belize began to emerge in the mid-1980s shortly after independence, and foreign-drug-traffickers enlisted local groups, armed them and used them for drug-trafficking-labor-work (mules) and gave the groups names; then the groups began to fight with each other for turf and the illicit financial gains of drugs.
“How the US Exported a Bloods and Crips Gang War to Belize” – ViceNews, July 2021
Hand-signals is a silent method of communication, and the young-men in gangs have mastered the craft of letting others know that they are in a gang, although laws in Belize prohibit being a member of a gang our young-men find it essential to be in a gang for their own protection.
A few days after his death on Wednesday night January 5th. a TikTok video was seen on social media where 15 year old Joshua was doing a gang-sign
Belize City, with a population of less than 100k, has at lease 10 named gangs.
Why do criminal gangs exists in society ?
“Usually, gangs have gained the most control in poorer, urban communities and developing countries in response to unemployment and other services.[106] Social disorganization, and the disintegration of societal institutions such as family, school, and the public safety net, enable groups of peers to form gangs.
According to surveys conducted internationally by the World Bank for their World Development Report 2011, by far the most common reason people suggest as a motive for joining gangs is unemployment”
-World Bank-
The other factors are:
Easy Access To Guns
Un-Employment / Not In School
Violent Video Games & TV Tells Them How To Be
When you are a child you don’t know how you should be or how you should behave, for survival and for friends. The violence that is normalized on ‘video-games’, violent content on TV and other mediums is absorbed by young-men and is extremely influential in the way they think they should be.
An admiration of criminals and those portrayed on TV shows as being strong are usually in the Mafia or some sort of criminal group; that resort to fatal gun violence for almost every (beef) situation.
Statistics & Possible Solutions ?
Written & Compiled by: channel1Belize.com / digitalBelize,LIVE Staff writer – Friday, January 7th. 2022 – channel1belize@gmail.com