Caribbean Review: What The Sint Maarten Shooting Reveals About Western Bias On Caribbean Crime

Introduction

In response to the shooting in Sint Maarten, western countries have been quick to report on the case; however, the case itself is not the focus here. Rather, unpacking how the framing of Caribbean nationalities within these reports can harm the wider conversation on violence within the West Indies, examining how problematic stereotypes can have long-term negative effects on a demographic of people.

Unpacking Western reports 

During a trip to Sint. Maarten, 29-year-old woman Denisha Delacy was fatally shot. The target of the shooting had been a local business owner, Quincy Damon Sylvester, who was also killed, having been suspected of involvement in drug trafficking. One of the suspects has been apprehended, but the investigation is still on-going. 

An American news source reported on the shooting with one of their subheadings reading “Investigations point to Trinidadian Suspects”. Furthermore, the article stated that the suspect had been identified and announced to the public on March 4. The subheading suggests more information than has been offered from the authorities, while one Trinidadian suspect has been identified with the investigation still pending. There are no clear sources pointing to Trinidadians being the nationality of the remaining suspects, despite what has been written. Furthermore, if this truly was the case, then there is a lack of sources available within this report to affirm that.  

Another news source, headquartered in the United Kingdom, headlined an article highlighting that the case involved a Trinidadian drug lord. Within their report, they discuss how Quincy Damon Sylvester was a “suspected drug lord”. Furthermore, it’s important again to remember this case is still ongoing; the lack of clarity of where these sources come from leaves a lot of room for speculation. In comparison TimesCaribbean wrote an article that ushered away from speculation regarding the other suspects, sticking to the facts.

These are two examples of articles that reported on the incident, drowning out other stories circulating the island, yet there is a lack coverage at the same rate from these news sources for positive stories circulating Sint Maarten.

Violence Statistics within the West 

In such articles, both Sint Maarten and Trinidad are portrayed as having high levels of gang activity and crime. When inputting a simple search online, “Sint Maarten Gang Violence,” some Caribbean articles pop up reassuring visitors that violence is not as ubiquitous as reported.

According to Numbeo, a crime statistics website, Sint Maarten has a crime rate of 34.09%, with the highest crime activity being corruption and bribery or car theft.

In regards to the UK, crime statistics: Using and dealing drugs is a 63.65% with crime predicted to increase over the next 5 years at a rate of 65.66% with an overall crime rate currently of 43.21%.

It is important to acknowledge these statistics on Numbeo are imputed by survey data accumulated from public opinion. In terms of public discourse, it is clear that crime is not out of control despite how the sheer volume of articles portray it as such.

Focusing more on official databases, Interpol has determined that the main crime issue within Sint Maarten is drug trafficking, firearms and counterfeit. However, the website details how multiple task forces within the country have tactical information sharing data bases that are keeping the issues at a controlled level.  The United Nations On Drugs and Crime Database (UNODC) claims that city-level homicide rates particularly are similar to urban areas. This would include smaller populations within the Caribbean as their population as a country would constitute that of an urban area. Methodically this places islands like Sint Maarten in regards to crime rate the same as one UK city, providing the nuance needed here is that overall the UK has a low crime rate.

The Duty Of A Journalist 

Swaaningen, R, (2016) wrote a paper on how there have long been undertones in criminology reports that circulate a lot of  misinformation regarding global south countries, so much so that it sits in an ill-informed vacuum. This combined with the data from UNODC demonstrates that crime data from Caribbean islands is not recorded enough to make blanket statements about the prevalence of crime there. The existing statistics mark a similarity to those found about U.K. cities. 

While the UK publishes detailed and regularly updated crime data, Caribbean nations such as Sint Maarten have perception based datasets which is not acknowledged in a lot of articles which furthermore, creates an imbalance in how crime is reported internationally.  

The reality is that crime rates within Caribbean countries are similar to those of cities within the UK with a similar amount of residents as the entire island. The way that western news outlets frame these incidents, especially regarding Caribbean nationals, contributes to a wider discourse of stereotypes that gets projected onto these islands as an inaccurate portrayal of the islands as a whole. 

If you look at news outlets within the United Kingdom, there is not a consistent dominance of reporting on drug crime, yet statistically it is the most common crime. If you look at county lines and drug gang violence within the nation, the perpetrators mostly comprise of British nationals. According to the National Police Chiefs’ Council, most drug gangs are led by British nationals at over 90%.

Researching these topics provides an interesting look at how specific discourses are repeated regarding Caribbean countries like Sint Maarten when violent incidents occur. The sheer volume of articles on the region that center around violence creates a narrative that poses a real danger, threatening to tarnish the region’s reputation. This stands in stark contrast to reports on crime in a western landscape, where news headlines are not continuously discussing violence at the same rate. Articles are not being written to assume information that is not clearly validated, and outlets do not shed light on rates of how much crime is actually committed. Although there could be validated sources used this is not disclosed to the reader within these articles.  

Reasons for this vary, one being that Sint Maarten’s population is significantly less than the United Kingdom, so when crime does happen, it makes waves especially when the story includes foreign nationals, but this does not mean that Sint. Maarten is more dangerous as a country across the board.

Overall, reporters have a duty to not perpetuate harmful stereotypes when discussing crime in other countries, but to stick to the facts and carefully use language that discourages inaccurate narratives. Long-term outcomes of these practices would support Caribbean nations such as those in Sint. Maarten in maintaining accurate reflections of their island that do not pose risks to their future enterprises, identity or global status.