Trinidad & Tobago: Rise of women in gang violence sparks concern

Trinidad & Tobago has witnessed a rise in women joining violent gangs in recent years. The data by the Police Service’s Crime and Problem Analysis Branch reveals that of the fifty-four women murdered in 2023, thirteen were the result of gang violence.

Author and criminologist, Randy Seepersad, has been studying and analyzing the situation in the country. In an exchange with the media, Seepersad said “Gang intelligence data showed women and girls playing advisory roles in the gangs”

Randy goes on to suggest that the data and information gathered point to a not so distant future where women and young girls will be the dominant demographic in predominant gangs, a scenario that is not unheard of in the Caribbean region.

2023 data from the Police Service’s Crime and Problem Analysis Branch demonstrated that gang related murders of women are nearing the number who died from Domestic Violence, and these only include reported and documented incidents.

Nine of the fourteen women who died in gang related incidents were between the age of 21-30, the perpetrators took the lives of five teenagers, a six-year-old girl and five women over the age of sixty, a statistic that is concerning for more than just the government.

Seepersad stated “What we are seeing in adult gangs is that women are playing a more significant role, whereas they would have played a very peripheral role in the past. Now, you are seeing women coming up as advisors, women being used in transshipping drugs and hiding weapons, but playing a more advisory or senior capacity in gangs”

“We are also seeing the female students in school self-reporting that they are in gangs, much higher than we would have anticipated at all. In fact, in some countries in the region, they are almost running neck to neck with the males.”

Past criminology studies suggest that students who get involved in gangs are likely not performing well and are liable to continue on the path of crime after graduation.

Seepersad also suggested it’s more important than ever to educate the general public about domestic violence and how to tackle it

“One of the things that need to happen as well is that law enforcement needs to play a greater role when it comes to domestic violence. Unfortunately, one of the things we see in the Caribbean region is that, culturally, we shy away from wanting to deal with it. We also know people involved in relationships and domestic violence is happening, and we say, ‘You know, that is husband and wife business. I do not want to get involved,’ and we do nothing.”

This rapid growth of women getting involved in gangs is especially concerning when you look at statistics between 2011 and 2017, where 94% of homicide victims were male.

Many factors contribute to the rise of involvement in gang activity such as poverty/lack of opportunity, family/environmental factors, regional and cultural trauma, and worse than any of those is various recruitment strategies from gangs, sometimes by force.

The government has tried to counteract these efforts through stricter law enforcement, social programmes, rehabilitation centers and community engagement; however, they tend to be limited by funding and sustainability issues, corruption amongst officials and more subtle problems like the integration of a gang towards the local economy making it very difficult to tackle.

Seepersad has on countless occasions expressed the need for more preventative measures, previously stating “I don’t know what again will convince the politicians that a change is needed. A commitment was expressed at the Caricom heads of government conference last year, and I am truly hoping that this will be acted upon and that it wasn’t hype and talk. We need a change because this is not something that can be fixed overnight”