The cost of crime and violence
Editorial
Stabroek News
May 9, 2007
Just three days before the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and the Latin America and Caribbean Region of the World Bank issued their critical joint report entitled Crime, Violence and Development: Trends, Costs and Policy Options in the Caribbean at the World Bank's headquarters in Washington, Guyana's Minister of Home Affairs Clement Rohee launched an Inter-Agency Task Force on Narcotics and Illicit Weapons in Georgetown. This was quite a coincidence.
Echoing the arguments advanced in the UNODC-World Bank report about the damage to the national economy caused by illegal drugs and guns, Mr Rohee used the opportunity of his address to the ceremony for signing the memorandum of understanding to establish the task force to vow that the government will "stop at nothing" to stamp out trafficking in illegal drugs and guns.
The UNODC-World Bank report evinced evidence to explain how narco-trafficking was at the core of the murder rates in the Caribbean, which were higher than in any other region of the world. Narco-trafficking drives crime by "normalizing" illegal behaviour and diverting criminal justice resources from other important activities. In this way, it "embeds violence, undermines social cohesion and contributes to the widespread availability of firearms."
The report warned that narco-trafficking, high crime rates and violence in the Caribbean are undermining growth, threatening human welfare and impeding social development. Crime is seen as a major obstacle to investment because, as crime increases, "access to financing declines, spending on formal and informal security measures increases and worker productivity declines."
Although the report deals generally with the Caribbean, Guyana's particular public safety predicament is the subject of several specific references. In fact, various indexes were used to measure the impact of narco-trafficking, gun-running and criminal violence on the quality of life in Guyana. The country had already been ranked at 103 Human Development Index (HDI) compared to Suriname at 89; and rated at 121 on the Corruption Perception Index (CPI) compared to Suriname at 90. But other new statistics paint a poor picture of the people's quality of life.
Guyana now occupies the notorious lead in the Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALY) index - the standard international health measure of the burden of disease that expresses health life lost, years of life lost, mortality and incapacity. With a rating of 716, Guyana is over twice the world wide average of 343. The report places Guyana's high homicide rate as way above Suriname's and even the world average. But it also suggests that the annual national rate of growth can be boosted by as much as 1.7 per cent if only the country could reduce its high rate of homicide to, at least, that of Costa Rica, which has one of the lowest in the region.
Crime and violence have also contributed to Guyana's top ranking as world leader in emigration; it has the world's worst skilled emigration rate (89 per cent). The report cites Guyana's own Poverty Reduction Strategy which admits meekly that "the crime and security situation will have to be tackled and dealt with definitively if Guyana is to minimize the migration of its highly trained professionals and entrepreneurs whose skills and resources are needed to propel growth."
The UNODC-World Bank report should convince both the administration and the criminal justice system that the lawless activities of notorious narco-traffickers and gun-runners have had a deleterious effect on the country. Should the administration even half succeed in reducing narco-trafficking and gun-running, Guyana can expect to see an improvement in economic growth and the enhancement of citizens' quality of life.