Causes of increased crime in Caribbean societies

Reon Gabriel

T.A Marryshow Community College

Arts science and Professional Studies

COM103 (section N)

David Ambrose

4th / 1/ 2017
The Caribbean is a region that is located to the southeast of the Gulf of Mexico, east of

Central America and Mexico and to the north of South America. The Caribbean is

classified as one of the most beautiful region in the world but such beauty has been

disturbed by the excessively high and increasing crime rate the region possessed. The

term ‘crime’ can be define as an action or omission that constitutes an offense that may

be prosecuted by the state and is punished by law. Over the last 4 years the crime rate in

the Caribbean has increased. The major causes for such increase in crime in the

Caribbean are; drug addiction, harsh family conditions, poverty and influences by the

mass media.

Drug addiction is defined as a chronic, relapsing brain disease that is characterised by

compulsive drug seeking and use, despite harmful consequences. It is considered a brain

disease because drugs change the brain; they change how it’s structured and how it

works. The use of illegal drugs is already a crime but the use of illegal drugs can lead to

other crimes since it interferes with the proper functioning of the human brain. Theft is a

common crime correlated with drug addiction, since drugs are expensive and addictive in

order to feed the hunger for such drug impose a heavy strain on the pocket of the abuser

so that individual will have to find means to gather funds to purchase whatever drug he or

she is addicted to, most of the times if not all the individual will commit some form of

theft to purchase the drug that is in such high demand. Note that theft is not the only

crime that is correlated with drug abuse; violence is a correlated crime also. When

someone is under the influence of drugs they tend to do things that are not within the

element of themselves, this however can lead to one interfering with a person, which can

lead to fights and other irrelevant encounters; that causes unnecessary conflicts. Note that
there are many factors that can lead to one turning to drugs the conditions in one’s family

can cause him to turn to drugs.

Harsh family conditions can lead to one turning to drugs. If one is abuse verbally,

emotionally, sexually or even physically that individual can use illegal drugs as a form of

relaxation which is form of crime, therefore crime increases. Added to that that individual

can develop a level of hatred within and can find his/her self in spiteful activities this can

result in public destruction. Also that individual may join street gangs searching for the

love they are not getting from their family and as we know street gang is up to no good.

So such family conditions can result in criminal activities. This is a major problem in the

Caribbean that has to be looked into in order to help decrease the crime rate in the

Caribbean. Along with family conditions, poverty is another major cause of crimes in the

Caribbean.

Poverty is the state of being extremely poor, where one cannot provide oneself with the

three basic needs for life which is food, clothing and shelter. When one is in poverty that

individual is in desperate need of goods. That desperation however can lead to that

person engaging in criminal activities such as drug trafficking in order to gain income to

support themselves and their family. This illegal buying and selling of drugs can lead to

the buyers of the drug to commit the crime of the usage of illegal drugs. Also drug

trafficking can lead to violence, for example, if a drug dealer doesn’t get his money on

time this can result in serious violent activities which can result in individuals being

killed. Not that not all the people in poverty turn to drug trafficking as a means of

survival but this decision is a common alternative to the extremely poor individuals. Also

people in extreme poverty can turn to stealing as a way to get their basic needs. This also
is a crime that common among the extremely poor people however, not all people

commit such crime. People don’t commit crime because of their condition but sometimes

is by the influence they get from the things around them and what they see and do. The

Caribbean is seriously influenced by the mass media.

The mass media entails the news, movies, television shows, social media and more. In the

Caribbean the mass media promotes a lot of negativity for example gang violence in

movies. Sometimes people are influence by what they see from the people they look up

to. For examples today rappers promotes smoking and drinking in their videos so one

might think it’s cool to use illegal drugs and drink excessive alcohol which can increase

the crime right because the use of both substance talk you out of the element of a normal

human being and this can lead to one doing all sort of things that is not intended to do

when one is their right head. Also in movies violence promoted so one may think is it’s

the cool or it’s the best to react with violence when petty situations occur therefore the

crime of violence will be committed. This is only a few circumstances where the mass

media influences and promotes crime in the Caribbean. Note that not only negativity the

mass media promotes it also promotes positive thing also.

Conclusively, the major causes of the increased crime rate in the Caribbean are drug

addiction, harsh family conditions, poverty and the mass media. The negativity of such

conditions is trying to tarnish the beauty of the Caribbean while infesting it with different

crimes.
 References

http://topyaps.com/top-10-causes-of-crime

http://www.talidari.net/10-causes-of-crime.html

https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/media-guide/science-drug-abuse-addiction-
basics

http://www.nationaldialoguenetwork.org/poverty-and-crime/

https://sites.google.com/site/crimesoc/project-3

http://www.greggbarak.com/whats_new_6.html