This year, 120 children have been charged with crimes

Senior reporter

According to data from the police’s Crime and Problem Analysis (CAPA), 120 children have been arrested and charged with crimes in the past nine months.

During the corresponding period – between January 1 and September 30, 2021 – 143 children were arrested and charged. In 2022, that number will have increased to 181 children.

In 2023, the number of paying children has increased significantly to 239 children.

Compared to last year, the number has fallen to almost half this year, to 120 as of September 30. The figures relate to cases investigated by the police.

In terms of gender, nine girls were charged with crimes in 2021; However, this figure rose to 11 the following year and eventually peaked at 16 in 2023, before falling again to 11 for 2024 from 30 September.

As of September 30, 2024, 34 children were charged with possession of weapons and ammunition, while 68 children were charged in 2023, 51 in 2022 and 37 in 2021.

Robberies were the second highest crime committed by children over the years, followed by burglary and battery/shootings.

Police have attributed the decline in the number of children charged for this year so far to more proactive community policing initiatives where schools and parents are targeted and encouraged to quell indiscipline.

One officer said more parents have shown greater interest in preventive programs such as the Police Youth Clubs (PYC).

But the officer added: “The figures provided simply reflect what has already been discovered or charged. It is likely that crimes involving children are simply not being detected as often as in previous years, so there is no one-size-fits-all answer.”

Despite the improved figures so far for 2024, concern about child crime among police and parents still remains high.

Young children are used by gangs as lookouts and ‘weapon bags’

During a Ministry of National Security media briefing in September, former head of the North Central Division, now ACP Richard Smith, reported that two boys as young as eight years old were present with another older boy to extort money from a Tunapuna -businessman.

Smith emphasized the important role parents played in protecting their children from crime, while urging them to be more proactive in their children’s lives.

“Remember, you gotta know where your kids are, you know. We are going to speak to a number of parents because young children are committing crimes.”

Speaking to Guardian Media in September, ACP Smith said the investigation into the boys’ extortion attempt by the businessman was still ongoing.

Police told Guardian Media that while there have been no reports of children as young as eight years old being arrested, their older peers have been detained by police for acting as lookouts or ‘message makers’ for gangs.

An officer from the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) said criminal gangs in East Port-of-Spain are using children as young as 13 to warn nearby gangsters of approaching patrols.

‘Every time we’re patrolling areas like St Paul Street and they see a police vehicle passing or getting close, you hear them say, ‘Here they come from the back.’ These are kids who say this all the time.

“This is happening in places like Leau Place, Lovell Place and Clifton Hill, wherever.”

The officer said children in their early teens have also been recruited as “gun bags,” or someone assigned to quickly hide weapons from police during a raid or search.

Smith said criminals may choose to use adolescents because they are less likely to arouse suspicion from police.

He noted that even if officers arrested a child, it triggered a series of additional administrative procedures to deal with a minor, noting that only the Maracas, St. Joseph and Oropouche police stations could house children.

YTRC occupancy will increase between 2022 and 2023

The Youth Transformation and Rehabilitation Center (YTRC), Arouca, is the main institution in charge of the custody of children accused of serious crimes.

The facility is jointly managed by the Prison Service and the Children’s Authority.

In response to Guardian Media’s queries via WhatsApp on Wednesday, a prison service spokesperson said there were 37 boys and two girls housed at the YTRC facility on October 2.

The number of people held in the facility in 2022 was 47 (43 boys and four girls). In 2023 this will have increased to 58 (53 boys and five girls).

In their response, the prison service noted that all juvenile offenders underwent rehabilitation programs including academic training, vocational skills and moral, cultural, sporting and spiritual programmes.

“Once committed, they are assessed to determine their criminogenic needs. Residents are required to attend school and are placed accordingly based on literacy.

The structured approach ensures that they receive comprehensive training that prepares them for further academic qualifications.”

In addition to their own programs, the prison system reports that several non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have also offered personal development programs.

In their response to Guardian Media, the Children’s Authority said they have worked closely with the Children’s Court to put intervention plans in place for children appearing in court.

The authority noted that their Child Justice Unit has several responsibilities, including monitoring the welfare of children at the YTRC.

‘Parents, teachers and other stakeholders must play a proactive role’

Speaking to Guardian Media, professional mediator Jeneice De Coteau said that effectively suppressing child criminals is not just the responsibility of the police, as parents, teachers and other stakeholders need to take a more proactive role in identifying anti-social trends.

De Coteau, who has worked with the St Joseph Police Youth Club and made school visits to provide training on conflict resolution and anger management, said she has seen first-hand that children involved in crime are getting younger.

She noted that the culmination of various traumas and unresolved issues can have a negative effect on children who are not properly socialized to deal with these issues.

“We would have interacted with high school students and now even primary school students are involved in various types of criminal activities and so on. Grief is a factor that puts a child at risk, and the way young people are or are not taught how to deal with different situations, such as anger, pain, loss or fear – all these things go through their minds because they don’t really did. taught.

“Our society is not structured in a way that we teach our youth or even adults how to properly handle situations,” she said.

At a Joint Select Committee on National Security in March 2021, Eye on Dependency director Garth St Clair reported that children in both primary and secondary schools were at risk of being recruited by criminals.

He noted that children from single-parent families are particularly vulnerable to criminal influence due to the financial strain on their homes.

“Some of them can’t afford a lot of the things they see their friends have. In the neighborhood, so-called community leaders seek out these vulnerable people, and $1,000 looks very attractive to someone who just spent their last $50 to buy some milk. So all they ask is to bring some drugs to school and sell them, or just sit down the street and bring this radio and tell us what you see, or get us this (gun) to keep,” he said.

Last April, Police Commissioner Erla Harewood-Christopher reported during a regional crime symposium at the Hyatt Regency Hotel that by 2022, 54.6 percent of perpetrators would be people between the ages of 15 and 29.

MiLAT, MYPART Asset for delinquent students

Last November, Education Minister Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly announced that unruly students would be enrolled in the Military Led Academic Training (MiLAT) program instead of sitting out.

Dr. Gadsby-Dolly emphasized that indiscipline in school was a major concern for her ministry.

Referring to information collected by ministry officials, she added that antisocial behavior was most prevalent when they were in group three (15 or 16 years old).

“That has an impact on school dropouts because they reach school age and make the decision to leave, and the state cannot force them to stay in school.”

Gadsby-Dolly added that the mechanism to enroll a student in the MiLAT program for unruly behavior would only come into effect if the school’s support systems failed to bring about the necessary changes in the child .

The MiLAT program is a social intervention initiative under the Ministry of Youth Development and National Service specifically designed to help ‘at-risk’ young men between the ages of 16 and 20 develop more productive behaviors and attitudes. It is coordinated and led by military officers.

The Ministry of Youth Development and National Service, led by Foster Cummings, was established in 2020 following the PNM’s victory in that year’s general election.

The Ministry has initiated various vocational and academic programs through partnerships with other institutions.

A new initiative, MYPART Asset, will provide a safe space for excluded students, according to Cummings. It will be administered by the Specialized Youth Service Programs from the Armed Forces Reserves. The students, he said, “will go through a three-month assessment period, and then we will direct them to the technical-vocational aspect, which is the MYPART, or to the academic stream, which is the military-led academic course. MiLAT).

“What we hope to do, rather than just expel them and fall by the wayside, is provide a new opportunity in a more disciplined environment where these children can have another chance at education and development. ”

There will also be a female version of the MiLAT program, Cummings said, because in its current form it is only open to young men.

What the law says

Under Article 57 (I) of the Children’s Act 46:01, it is noted that where a child has been convicted of an offense and the court finds that a “parent, guardian or person responsible for the child has failed to provide reasonable care exercise or supervision to prevent the commission of a criminal offence, the court may summon the parent or guardian to demonstrate why he should not pay a fine.”

Under Part III, Section 8 of the Children’s Act, anyone who “gives, sells, lends or rents a firearm to a child” is liable on conviction to a $50,000 fine and 10 years’ imprisonment.

According to the Summary Courts Act, Chapter 4:20, the age of criminal responsibility in T&T is seven years.

A child is considered ‘doli incapax’, or incapable of forming the intention to commit a crime, if he or she is under the age of seven.

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