Another take on the driving force behind the rising crime rate

Dear Editor;
It is with unmitigated anguish and profound concern that I read the article by Pastor Wendell Jeffrey, Stabroek News April 27, aptly titled, “Government needs to know what is driving these criminals to be so violent”.
Unless I am hopelessly misled, I think that this enigmatic question is embedded in the cranium of every sane civic minded Guyanese, whether residing at home or in the diaspora. The problem of evil has plagued humans for millennia.  Why do some of us grow up to become criminals, thieves and murderers when others do not?  Can we assume that there are forces at work that can inspire one individual Are there unseen forces at work that can inspire one person to become Rondell”Fine Man”Rawlin and the other Martin Luther King.
Permit me from a humble standpoint to make some degree of light entry through a slight crack in the egg of understanding. I recall a powerful quote from Victor Hugo the French playwright and human rights activist wherein he stated, “Where there is darkness crimes will be committed. The guilty one is not merely he who commits the crime but he who caused the darkness.”
The darkness that produces crime is somewhat of a historic occurrence based on the economic deprived citizenry of our nation that just so happens to be of a particular ethnic group. It is this lack or loss of opportunity that expedites the “I will get mine even at the expense of yours mentality.
No it is not guns, but instead the reality of the environmental circumstances in which again we see such an alarming percentage of youths unemployed- a rate which is extremely high  and snowballed downhill when Guyana had its first change of government in two decades or more.
At the recent graduation of police recruits, The Commissioner of Police charged the graduates with the reading of the book Understanding Human Behavior for Effective Police Work by Harold Russell & Alan Biegel.
This well- written and recently updated book has been hailed the world over as the foremost guide for officers on the force and the classroom recruit. It is used in police training institutions throughout the United States of America. At the selfsame graduation there was also a call by a retired Police Commissioner for the installation of a Behavioral Science Unit in Guyana.  A much needed call that would have already provided some insight towards a response to the question at hand. Better late than never I guess.
Part of the problem in Guyana is the absence of the usual, causing proliferation of the unusual. Why wait until the crime has been committed, to visit the criminal to inquire why? What response would you be expecting?
The FBI has garnered crime solving success since the creation in 1972 of its Behavioural Science Unit, during investigation of the increasing wave of serial rapes and homicides that swept across the U.S. Examined were four pivotal aspects of the behaviour of suspected criminals such as antecedent tendencies, manner of crime, body disposal method and post-crime comportment.
Do you see how far behind we have been and the amount of darkness through which light should now shine? On the subject of understanding the why’s of certain criminal behaviour, especially since Pastor Jeffrey pointed out that the government needed to construct and empower an outfit aimed at ascertaining the causative factors for the dastardly crimes committed and the antisocial behaviours displayed by our youths.
Let us now take a look from another angle or an altered perspective, at the material from which the outfit should have long been measured, cut, sewn and on its way to being well worn.
While new types of crimes have become more prevalent in our society, very little has changed in the legal system or the approach in dealing with crime.
As a consequence crime continues to invade every aspect of Guyanese lives, criminal court dockets and prisons become deadly and oppressively overcrowded, and recidivism rates continue to escalate. On a cautionary note we must not overlook an already overlooked or missed factor—that of choice.
In another book of interest “Inside the Criminal Mind” written by Stanton Samenow, a clinical psychologist who has worked over four decades with law breakers/ criminals, documents his discovery, that all criminals share a particular mind-set—often evident in childhood—that is disturbingly different from that of a responsible citizen. According to Samenow, race has nothing whatsoever to do with an individual becoming a crime statistic: plainly put it is the character of the individual and the choices he makes. An individual with a criminal personality thinks in a particular way.
Errors in his thinking result in physical, emotional, and financial injury to others on a large scale. In addition, due to his forty plus years of working with criminals Dr. Samenow reaffirms that factors such as poverty, divorce, and media violence do not cause criminality.  In conclusion permit me to return to my opening quote, that the guilty one is not he who has committed the crime but the one who has caused the darkness, for therein lies our answers.
No need to re-pose the question. We know who the criminals are, where they are, and how and why they act differently from other citizens. So with resolute steps let us approach the darkness walking in the direction of the light. We will fail if we seek the answers from the jail, no point in trying to get the facts long after the acts. Let us start right by finding the light.
From this understanding can come up with reasonable, compassionate and effective solutions to the question(s) currently plaguing our minds.
Yvonne Sam