DISTURBING TRENDS IN THE LATEST CRIME REPORT

Barbados’ front-line youth professionals are being told to intensify their intervention work, as newly released police figures show a sharp rise in violent and serious offences committed by young people.

Speaking on Friday at the closing of a two-week Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) training course hosted by the Ministry of Educational Transformation and the MultiCare Youth Foundation at Pelican House, the foundation’s Executive Director Mitzian Turner pointed to “disturbing trends” emerging in the latest crime report.

Wednesday’s report from The Barbados Police Service revealed that while overall crime is down slightly by two per cent, serious crimes against the person have doubled, robberies have more than doubled, and major crimes are up 13 per cent. What alarmed Turner most was who is driving those trends: 391 teenagers aged 15 to 19 have been charged, along with 999 young people aged 20 to 22.

“The acting commissioner expressed concern that the majority of those charged are young men, and that young women are becoming part and parcel of the underground economy… when they are not drinking, they are smoking,” Turner said.

Policing alone cannot fix the problem, she insisted. “There are ways in which we social service providers, community groups, schools, churches, private and public sector, and everyday Barbadians can make a difference… We need to create an ecosystem that rejects criminal and violent behaviours.”

She urged graduates of the programme to embrace their role: “You are the critical success factors for CBT here in Barbados… If you can transform thoughts and perspective, you can transform behaviours.”

CBT trainer Cyrilene Griffith-Willoughby said the sessions reinforced that “behind every challenge a student faces is a story… What we have started here has the potential to influence not just how we counsel or teach, but how we build safer and more caring school environments across Barbados.”