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TT gangs double the number in Jamaica
Jamaica may not have the worst gang problem in the Caribbean.
US criminologist, Prof Charles Katz, has found that ten percent of the youth in Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) are in gangs, which is double the level for Jamaican youth and higher than that of American youth.
The criminologist expressed fears for what this holds for T&T’s future.Addressing an International Conference on Gangs, Violence, and Governance, at the University of the West Indies, St Augustine Campus, on Thursday, Professor Katz, who has often visited TT to research crime, said sixty percent of T&T’s murders are gang-related, which is double the estimates of other observers, who usually cite 33 percent.
He said most youth in T&T gangs join at age 13 years and do so primarily to seek friendship and, secondarily, protection.
His research showed some 60 percent of school-aged youngsters who are gang-members to be male, and 40 percent, female.
According to the criminologist, most T&T gangs have a membership aged 19 to 25-years-old, and are homegrown groups not foreign-based.
Meanwhile, Professor Katz also noted some residents like gangs, saying they
Jamaica may not have the worst gang problem in the Caribbean.
US criminologist, Prof Charles Katz, has found that ten percent of the youth in Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) are in gangs, which is double the level for Jamaican youth and higher than that of American youth.
The criminologist expressed fears for what this holds for T&T’s future.Addressing an International Conference on Gangs, Violence, and Governance, at the University of the West Indies, St Augustine Campus, on Thursday, Professor Katz, who has often visited TT to research crime, said sixty percent of T&T’s murders are gang-related, which is double the estimates of other observers, who usually cite 33 percent.
He said most youth in T&T gangs join at age 13 years and do so primarily to seek friendship and, secondarily, protection.
His research showed some 60 percent of school-aged youngsters who are gang-members to be male, and 40 percent, female.
According to the criminologist, most T&T gangs have a membership aged 19 to 25-years-old, and are homegrown groups not foreign-based.
Meanwhile, Professor Katz also noted some residents like gangs, saying they
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