Sandra Catron states her position on addressing crime in the community

Sandra Catron

Thursday, August 26, 2004

Most of what Sandra Catron says will not come as a surprise to anyone who has considered crime here on the Cayman Islands.

She admits that her position is probably not original, nor is she an expert, but like everyone else, she has had life experiences that have helped shape her position.

“I am from a broken home and realise how close I myself have came to being another unfortunate statistic,” said Ms Catron. “But in my particular case, early intervention and a complete change of environment with constant positive reinforcement made all the difference in my life. If we are going to address crime in Cayman, it cannot be seen simply in terms of punishment alone. We have to look at underlying reasons, ideologies and contributing factors.”

Ms Catron’s own life has helped her recognise that society needs to concentrate on the causes of crime, as well as its prevention and deterrence.

“Crime cannot be seen in isolative terms and we can no longer take an ad hoc or piecemeal approach,” she said. “If we are to address issues of juvenile delinquency, we have to realise that there are many contributing factors such as the effectiveness of the home environment.”

She also believes that the state of a given community has an important impact on criminality.

“We have to admit that the moral fibre of a community is directly linked to an increase in crime and disregard for the law,” she said. “History has taught us that if we do not have people that respect the laws that govern them, lawlessness will be the natural result.

“The moral fibre of a community is affected by a variety of different factors. One thing that I would like to concentrate on dates back to the time of Confucius when he said that ‘government is an example to the people.’

“There have been examples where once the leadership and enforcement agencies eliminated corruption and ‘cleaned’ themselves up, crime rates dropped. Therefore, we have to have high expectations of leaders and politicians to make sure that they are not contributing to the moral decay of our society.”

Ms Carton also believes that education is an important weapon in the fight against crime and has looked at how it is used overseas.

“The amount of crime in a country can be directly correlated to the quality of the education provided,” she said.

“One interesting example that I came across was a comparison between Europe and the United States. In Europe, children are given the opportunity to have a trade at a much earlier age and can either enter the work force or continue their studies. In the US, children finish school at the age of 18 and often lack the academic basics. The incidence of violent crime in New York is about 100 times that of London. Perhaps the most important lesson that we can learn is that we all have our role to play in crime prevention.”

Ms Catron added: “Crime assaults the whole community, therefore we should all be concerned. It is not something that the police or government can address alone. There are many community safety initiatives that can be usefully deployed; people can help by reporting criminal activity and being more proactive in securing personal property. These are just a few suggestions and my position on crime, but I do not have all the answers nor do I profess to be an expert.”

Ms Catron will be standing as an independent candidate in Bodden Town at the forthcoming elections.

If anyone wants to contact Ms Catron with further suggestions she can be reached at 926-0449 or www.caymanfirst.ky or caymanfirst@candw.ky

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