120 children charged with crimes this year
Senior Reporter
shane.superville@guardian.co.tt
In the last nine months, 120 children have been arrested and charged with crimes according to data from the police Crime and Problem Analysis (CAPA).
For the corresponding period—between January 1 and September 30, 2021—143 children were arrested and charged. In 2022, that number increased to 181 children.
By 2023, the number of children charged increased significantly to 239 children.
In comparison to last year, this year’s figure has dropped to almost half that amount, to 120, as of September 30. The figures refer to matters detected by the police.
In terms of gender, in 2021, nine girls were charged with crimes; however, this figure rose to 11 the following year and eventually peaked at 16 in 2023 before dropping back to 11 for 2024 as of September 30.
As of September 30, 2024, 34 children were charged for possession of arms and ammunition, while 68 were charged in 2023, 51 were charged in 2022, and 37 were charged in 2021.
Robberies were the second highest crime committed by children over the years, followed by breaking and entering and wounding/shootings.
Police have attributed the drop in the number of children charged for this year so far to more proactive community policing initiatives with schools and parents being targeted and encouraged to quell indiscipline.
One officer said more parents have shown greater interest in preventative programmes like the Police Youth Clubs (PYC).
But the officer added, “The figures provided simply report what has already been detected or charged. It’s probable that crimes involving children are simply not being detected as high as previous years, so there’s no one single answer.”
Despite the improved figures so far for 2024, the concern about child criminals still remains high among police and parents.
Young children being used as lookouts and ‘gun sacks’ by gangs
During a Ministry of National Security media briefing in September, the 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 stressed the important roles parents played in protecting their children from criminality as he urged them to be more proactive in their children’s lives.
“Remember, you must know where your children are, you know. We are going to take some of the parents to task because young children are committing crimes.”
Speaking with Guardian Media in September, ACP Smith said investigations into the extortion attempt again by the businessman by the boys were 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.
One officer in the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) said that criminal gangs in East Port-of-Spain have been using children as young as 13 years old to alert nearby gangsters of approaching patrols.
“Every time we patrol areas like St Paul Street and they see a police vehicle pass or coming close, you’ll hear them saying, ‘Right there, they coming up the back.’ These are children saying this all the time.
“This happens in places like Leau Place, Lovell Place, and Clifton Hill, anywhere there.”
The officer said that children in their early teens have also been recruited as “gun sacks,” or someone designated to quickly hide weapons from police during a raid or search.
Smith said criminals may choose to use adolescents as they are less likely to arouse suspicion from police.
He noted that even if officers arrested a child, it initiated a series of additional administrative procedures to process a minor, noting that only the Maracas, St Joseph and Oropouche police stations were capable of housing children.
YTRC’s occupation rises between 2022 and 2023
The Youth Transformation and Rehabilitation Centre (YTRC), Arouca, is the main institution charged with the custody of children charged with serious crimes.
The facility is jointly managed by the prison service and the Children’s Authority.
Responding to Guardian Media’s questions via WhatsApp on Wednesday, a prison service spokesperson reported that as of October 2, there were 37 boys and two girls housed at the YTRC’s facility.
The number of people detained at the facility in 2022 was 47 (43 boys and four girls). This increased in 2023 to 58 (53 boys and five girls).
In their response, the prison service noted that all youth offenders underwent rehabilitation programmes, including academic training, vocational skills and moral, cultural, sporting and spiritual programmes.
“Upon committal, they are assessed to determine their criminogenic needs. The residents are required to attend school and are placed accordingly based on literacy.
The structured approach ensures that they receive a comprehensive education that prepares them for further academic qualifications.”
In addition to their own programmes, the prison service reported that several non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have also offered personal development programmes.
In their response to Guardian Media, the Children’s Authority said they worked closely with the Children’s Court to create intervention plans for children who are before the court.
The authority noted that their Child Justice Unit has several responsibilities, among which are monitoring the well-being of children at the YTRC.
‘Parents, teachers, and other stakeholders must play a proactive role’
Speaking with Guardian Media, professional mediator Jeneice De Coteau said effectively quelling child criminals was not just the responsibility of the police, as parents, teachers, and other stakeholders must play a more proactive role in recognising anti-social tendencies.
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 firsthand that children involved in crime are getting younger.
She noted that the culmination of different traumas and unresolved issues can have an adverse effect on children who have not been properly socialised to cope with these problems.
“We would have been interacting with secondary school students and now even primary school students are involved in criminal activities of different kinds and so on. Grief is a factor in putting a child at risk, and the way that young people are taught or not taught how to cope with different situations like anger, hurt, loss, or fear—all these things go through their mind because they have not really been taught.
“Our society has not been structured in a way where we teach our young people or even adults how to manage situations correctly,” she said.
During 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 households were particularly vulnerable to criminal influence due to the financial strain on their homes.
“Some of them cannot afford a lot of the things they see their friends have. On the block, the so-called community leaders seek out these vulnerable folks, and $1,000 looks really attractive to someone who just spent their last $50 to buy some milk. So all they ask is to take some drugs to school and sell or just sit higher up the road and take this radio and tell us what you see or keep this (gun) for us,” he said.
Last April, during a regional crime symposium at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, Police Commissioner Erla Harewood-Christopher reported that in 2022, 54.6 per cent of the perpetrators were people aged 15 to 29.
MiLAT, MYPART Asset for delinquent students
Last November, Minister of Education Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly announced that unruly students would be enrolled into the Military Led Academic Training (MiLAT) programme rather than being left idle.
Dr Gadsby-Dolly stressed that school indiscipline was a major concern to her ministry.
Referring to information gathered by ministry officials, she added that anti-social behaviours were most prevalent when they were in Form Three (15 or 16 years old).
“That has an impact on school dropouts because they reach a compulsory age and they make the decision to leave, and the state cannot force them to stay in (school).”
Gadsby-Dolly added that the mechanism to enrol a student into the MiLAT programme for unruly behaviour would only be initiated if the school’s support systems failed to bring about the necessary changes in the child.
The MiLAT programme is a social intervention initiative under the Ministry of Youth Development and National Service that is specifically designed to help “at-risk” young men between the ages of 16 and 20 years develop more productive behaviours and attitudes. It is coordinated and run by military officers.
The Ministry of Youth Development and National Service, which is led by Foster Cummings, was created in 2020 following the PNM’s victory in the general election that year.
The ministry has initiated several vocational and academic programmes through partnerships with other institutions.
A new initiative, MYPART Asset, Cummings said, will offer safe space for expelled students. It will be managed by the Specialised Youth Service Programmes out of the reserves of the Defence Force. The students, he said, “will go through a period of assessment of three months, and then we direct them into either the technical-vocational aspect, which is the MYPART, or the academic stream, which is the Military-led Academic Training (MiLAT).
“What we are hoping to do instead of them just being expelled from school and falling by the wayside is that we present another opportunity in a more disciplined environment where these children can have another opportunity towards their education and their development.”
There will also be a female version of the MiLAT programme, Cummings said, as in its current state, it is only open to young men.
What the law says
Under Section 57 (I) of the Children’s Act 46:01, it is noted that when a child is convicted of a crime and the court holds that a “parent, guardian, or person with responsibility for the child has failed to exercise reasonable care of or supervision to prevent the commission of an offence, the court may call upon the parent or guardian to show 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 fine of $50,000 and imprisonment for ten years.
Under the Summary Courts Act, Chapter 4:20, the age of criminal responsibility in T&T is seven years old.
A child is considered ‘doli incapax’ or incapable of forming the intent to commit a crime if they are below the age of seven.
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