Majority of global population living in high-crime societies
Published:Thursday | March 14, 2024 | 12:10 AMAsha Wilks/Gleaner Writer
According to data from the Global Initiative against Transnational Organised Crime’s (GI-TOC) 2023 Global Organised Crime Index, 83 per cent of the global population is living in high-crime conditions.
In his presentation during the Annual Meetings of the Boards of Governors of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and IDB Invest, which took place from March 6–10 in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, Mark Shaw, director of GI-TOC, stated that “on the available data, parts of Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) are some of the most criminally violent places on Earth ... and a significant share of that violence, arguably, is connected directly or indirectly to organised crime”.
The meetings consisted of five days of seminars.
Last Thursday, Shaw addressed seminar four titled ‘Ensuring Citizen Security: Strategies for Safer Societies’.
Region tops global average
He further stated that the information from the 2023 Global Organised Crime Index showed that LAC had scored above global average for several criminal markets – the most pervasive being the cocaine trade.
“While drugs get a lot of attention regionally, arms trafficking, human trafficking, counterfeit goods, extortion, and racketeering are all above the global average and smuggling of migrants is a fast-growing market that remains largely understudied in some parts of the region,” he said.
Shaw continued that even more startling was that despite the high prevalence of criminality across the region, there was a low resilience to illicit economies in various states.
“And by resilience I mean the types of mechanisms that countries have in place to combat organised crime, and more importantly, the effectiveness of these mechanisms,” he said, adding that LAC was below the global average in three-quarters of the resilience indicators of the Global Organised Crime Index.
Over in Jamaica, the Jamaica Constabulary Force’s (JCF) Serious Crimes Report for January 1 to March 9 shows that 192 murders, 186 shootings, 130 robberies, and 146 break-ins had occurred.
Shaw further acknowledged that while there were “no quick and easy solutions” to tackle organised crime, five priority actions to consider were to be better informed; invest in resilience and build integrity; engage a wider range of stakeholders; be more strategic; and anticipate and provide early warning.
He stressed that it was undisputed that organised crime is a hindrance to development, and as such, he was urging international organisations, development stakeholders, and other players to stand against organised crime and work towards developing policies that would enhance the quality of life for people.
The Global Organised Crime Index is a multidimensional tool that assesses the level of criminality and resilience to organised crime for 193 countries along three key pillars: criminal markets, criminal actors, and resilience.
The IDB explains that criminal organisations across the region significantly impact the lives of millions of people, pressure businesses through violent extortion, disrupt public service delivery, and diminish tax revenues through money-laundering schemes and contraband.