ABSTRACT
Drawing on qualitative research derived from a frame analysis, this chapter focuses on the social construction of crime in a post-colonial context. Using Antigua and Barbuda as case study, this chapter describes the socioeconomic factors that the news media and members of the public blame for Antigua and Barbuda’s current crime situation. While the news media and the public seem to have an aversion to explicit causal connections between crime and poverty, unemployment, poor education, bad housing, and class discrimination, they seem to readily accept the idea that crime is a consequence of family and community disintegration. This insight is important because understanding how crime is framed in terms of causes and remedies necessarily influences who we criminalise, what legislation we pass, and how we allocate tax dollars. Accordingly, this paper finds that criminal justice policy that is rooted in overtly structural conceptions of crime is not likely to succeed in Antigua and Barbuda. However, reframing the crime debate in terms that have greater cultural resonance – such as the breakdown of the family and community – while simultaneously incorporating subtle structural arguments will likely allow for more mature political discourse and as a result, more nuanced criminal justice policy.
