ABSTRACT
Many Caribbean islands’ prisons are operating beyond their capacity, yet little effort has been made to understand the public’s, and in particular, offenders’ view of the state and its agents in their crime control function. In particular, very little research has been conducted on crime and crime prevention in Dominica, although the volume of certain crimes warrants attention, as well as the establishment of a relationship between crime control strategies and crime rates. The current study investigated data from focus group discussions with community leaders and prisoners from two crime-prone economically disadvantaged communities in Dominica. The data suggests that both groups of participants share similar notions about police and policing in Dominica. Law enforcement officers were viewed as illegitimate, incompetent, unresponsive, and discriminative in executing their service. The paper also makes the case that the punitive approach to deal with crime and criminals may not be useful in the post-colonial era. This paper adds to the knowledge about public attitudes towards the criminal justice system and argues that the behaviours of law enforcement and correction officers, as viewed by offenders and community members, have implications for crime rates and the reintegration of ex-prisoners in the community.
