1. Crime, Criminality And North-to-south Criminological Complexities: Theoretical Implications for Policing ‘Hotspot’ Communities in ‘Underdeveloped’ Countries
Danielle Watson
School of Social Sciences, The University of the South Pacific, Fiji.
&
Dylan Kerrigan
Faculty of Social Sciences, The University of the West Indies, St Augustine.

2. Presentation Focus Problem overview
Social, Cultural & Ideological Considerations: Understanding the Margins
Northern Theories as Southern Solutions: The force-to-fit Matrix
Formulating Southern Solutions
Relevance of Research from the Margins: The Case of the Citizen Security Program (CSP) in Trinidad & Tobago
Final Considerations

3. Problem Overview
Complexity of societies with diasporic histories & culturally unique positions on crime & criminality
Cumulative historical disadvantage
Arguably high levels of societal dysfunction
Societies that defy ‘first world’ arguments on acceptable codes & norms of conduct & behaviours
Deficiency of generalized criminological positions

4. Southern Problems Northern Solutions
Social, Cultural & Ideological Considerations: Understanding the Margins
Southern Problems
Northern Solutions

5. Social, Cultural & Ideological Considerations: Understanding the Margins (cont’d)
Problems with proposed solutions
Solutions underscored by foreign contextualization
Solutions framed independently of culture, history and populace they are re-set to serve
Problems in the South
The violent colonial & post-colonial histories of Caribbean territories (Job 2004)
Caribbean people’s resistance to monoculturalism as pursued by neoliberal globalization (Mignolo 2000, Sheller 2012)
Continued exploitation, discrimination and racism faced by the majority of residents of T&T(Kerrigan 2015)

6. Northern Theories as Southern Solutions: The force-to-fit Matrix
Northern one-size-fits-all approaches
Perpetuate ideologies of modernization and assumptions about borrowing from the North as a requirement to advance developmental status of the subordinate Caribbean South
Suggested areas of significance to the formulation of Southern Solutions
Revisit foreign signifiers of appropriateness
Interrogate borrowed solutions & theories
Review borrowed policies
Re-assess knowledge foundation of foreign experts

7. Formulating Southern Solutions
Foreign signifiers of appropriateness
Borrowed solutions and theories
Ideologized codes of conduct reflecting remnants of a colonial past
Assumed moral appropriateness of foreigners & elite few
Use of offensive language
Contradictory globally accepted behaviours
N.B. Where laws contradict upheld value systems, there is the likelihood of problematic interface between the upholders of the law and the populace.
Broken Window Policing or Zero Tolerance Policing Initiative
Model Station Initiative
Community Policing Initiative
Special Anti-Crime Unit

8. Formulating Southern Solutions (cont’d)
Borrowed policies
Knowledge foundations of foreign experts
Strong elements of the Royal Constabulary colonial model with minor emphasis on service provision endure
Enduring history of problematic police/civilian relations are likely to impede dispersal of the model
Inapplicable Foreign Policies eg. T&T Use of Force Policy
11 foreign documents
Intermediary methods not facilitated in training
Reference to resources not available locally
Touted foreign experts ignorant of context and culture
Outsourcing instead of collaboration eg. Canadian top-cop, foreign consultants with full team of foreigners
Exclusion of civil society from reform efforts

9. Relevance of Research from the Margins: The Case of the Citizen Security Program (CSP) in Trinidad & Tobago
Local Political Culture & Institutional structure of the Government of Trinidad & Tobago
Nepotism
Solidarity networks
Redistributive accumulation ethno-racial political competition
Thin simplifications informal systems and processes resistance to change
Promise as the language of politics

10. Final Considerations
Any formulation of a Caribbean Criminology requires a recognition of a region unique in its social, economic and political configuration.
There is need to acknowledge the diversity & distinctiveness of the territories
Policies and practices intended to action change in the Global South should reflect experiences from the South and positions informed by Southern historical, cultural and ideological underpinning.
The culture of disloyalty to positions of ‘othered’ groups need to be considered.
The intention is not to discredit the validity of all Northern influences on crime control but to question the general applicability of such responses.