Caribbean Region Quarterly Bulletin: Volume 5: Issue 1: March 2016

Crime strongly affects persons in the Caribbean. In a recent survey, 40 percent of the Caribbean population identified crime and security-related issues as the main problems facing their country, even above poverty, the economy or inequality. The priority of crime is striking considering the challenging economic situation that the world economy, and the Caribbean in particular, are facing. Crime is as complex as it can be damaging for the well-being of persons. While we have a good understanding of general triggers for crimes, it remains difficult to design, implement and evaluate country-specific crime and violence prevention programs. A major problem in this respect is the lack of comparable, detailed data, including for some countries in the Caribbean. The IDB has supported data generation in the region using victimization surveys for individuals and businesses, which are presented in this quarterly bulletin. As usual, the quarterly bulletin also gives an overview of recent economic developments in the 6 IDB-member Caribbean countries, as well as the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS). The countries are: The Bahamas, Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago.