ABSTRACT
This chapter will examine official crime data as well as victimization survey data from the Caribbean with a view to allaying some of the major issues that affect the region. Official data are for the period 2000 to 2010 and include data on murders, shootings, robberies, rape, burglaries and break-ins, and kidnappings for 12 Caribbean countries. Victimization survey data from the UNDP (2012) Caribbean Human Development Report on citizen security will also be examined. This includes victimization survey data from a random sample of over 11,500 respondents in seven Caribbean countries (Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, St. Lucia, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago). Both datasets will be utilized to make comparisons of the victimization rates of official crime data versus victimization survey data to estimate the proportion of crimes that are not reported to the police. The chapter will also examine possible causal factors that may be useful in explaining crime in the Caribbean. Regression models for the Caribbean as a whole and for each of the seven countries in the UNDP (2012) dataset will be computed and assessed. The chapter will also explore policy recommendations that derive from the assessment of causal factors.
