The Male Social Participation and Violence in Urban Belize research report recently released by Dr. Herbert Gayle, Caribbean social anthropologist and lecturer at the University of the West Indies, along with his Belize team takes a comprehensive look at the crime situation in Belize at a time when the homicide rate in the country is at a record high—but has the researcher exaggerated the severity of Belize’s situation or was he just being honest about it?
A Belizean observer and graduate of UWI has questioned whether Dr. Gayle was being subjective in his interpretation of his findings. The example offered was a recent television interview in Belize, in which Gayle stated: “I think what bothered me the most, though, was the fact that Belize City, I found to be the most dangerous place in the Caribbean to raise a child. Because it is so small, we found that ninety-nine percent of all children we studied were traumatized by violence, compared to fifty-odd percent in Jamaica….”
The observer questioned: How can Gayle compare Belize City with the whole of Jamaica? Is it that he is/was comparing apples and oranges?
“Belize City was compared to KINGSTON — not Jamaica,” responded Gayle, when we asked him for clarification. “That would be unfair,” he said.
He continues: “Belize City is small and that magnifies all social impacts. In fact your population is so small that it is all of Belize that was compared to Kingston in the study.”
According to Gayle, while Jamaica is ranked 2nd most violent in the world and Belize 10th, or Jamaica [top] in the Caribbean and Belize 3rd, the impact of homicide and extreme violence on the two countries is different.
“The KMR (Kingston Metropolitan Region) has about 1.2 million people. It takes over 30 miles [of] travel to cross it. Half of these children will never be affected by violence, but in tiny Belize City, with a peri-urban area just beginning to form, almost all will be affected—as the study found,” Gayle explained.
“Let me… illustrate how size matters: Mexico has the most brutal killings in the world right now, but due to size, it is not even ranked in the top 10 in the world, as it relates to homicide.”
Gayle concluded that, “The good news about a small population is that recovery can also be quick, hence being small is not all gloom.”
On Page 289 of his research report, Gayle says, under the segment captioned, “Belize City as Possibly the Most Dangerous Place in the English-speaking Caribbean to Raise a Child”: “For over two decades Kingston has been branded the most dangerous place in the English-speaking Caribbean to raise a child. Between 2000 and 2010, the homicide rate for the Kingston Metropolitan Region (KMR) with an estimated population of 1.2 million has fluctuated roughly between 90 and 110 per 100,000. Over the last decade the KMR, though accounting for 45 percent of the population has had over two-thirds of Jamaica’s murders.
“In the last few years Greater Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, with its metropolitan population of over 270,000 has been challenging Kingston, Jamaica, in terms of murders per capita, with areas such as inner city Laventille accounting for disproportions of the country’s murders.
“Belize City has had significantly lower homicide rates despite an explosion in homicide since 2002. In fact, Belize City’s homicide rate has fluctuated between 60 and 80 murders per 100,000. Not surprisingly Belize is the third most violent country in the Caribbean.”
The researcher asked: How, then, can Belize City have the 3rd highest murder rate but become possibly the most unsafe place for children in the Caribbean as supported by the data?
“The answer lies in the issues of size and concentration of murders, velocity of firearms and preparedness for war trauma,” the Gayle report indicates. “In 2009, the Belize District had 110,100 persons. Of this number, 66,700 people are estimated to reside on a river delta of about 6 square miles, most of them crammed into what is known as the Southside.”
During the 7-year span from 2002 to 2009, Gayle noted, more than half the 700 murders in Belize were committed in the Belize District and more specifically in the Belize City area.
“In a space of this size it is impossible to escape being traumatized by over 300 (of the 703) murders that occurred between 2002 and 2009. These years would be fresh in the minds of the adolescent and youth respondents,” said Gayle.