Shal­iza Has­sanali

and Joshua Seemu­n­gal

The 16 Days of Ac­tivism against Gen­der-Based Vi­o­lence is an an­nu­al in­ter­na­tion­al civ­il so­ci­ety led cam­paign. It com­menced on No­vem­ber 25, the In­ter­na­tion­al Day for the Elim­i­na­tion of Vi­o­lence against Women, and ends on De­cem­ber 10, Hu­man Rights Day, high­light­ing that vi­o­lence against women is the most per­va­sive breach of hu­man rights world­wide.

In the last five years, the Spe­cial Vic­tims De­part­ment (SVD) of the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) has re­ceived 14,296 do­mes­tic vi­o­lence re­ports in­volv­ing in­ti­mate part­ners at its nine po­lice di­vi­sions.

Sta­tis­tics from the po­lice al­so showed that 4,667 women and girls were vic­tims of sex­u­al vi­o­lence be­tween 2018 and 2022.

The TTPS Child Pro­tec­tion Unit (CPU) al­so record­ed 10,311 re­ports of sex­u­al of­fences, phys­i­cal abuse, aban­don­ment/ne­glect and mis­treat­ment of chil­dren un­der the age of 16 from Jan­u­ary 1, 2020, to Oc­to­ber 31, 2024. Over this same pe­ri­od, there were al­so 5,026 re­ports of “a sex­u­al vi­o­lence na­ture” against chil­dren re­port­ed to the po­lice.

In 34 months, 215 women over the age of 18 made sex­u­al of­fences re­ports.

Da­ta al­so showed 804 per­pe­tra­tors were ar­rest­ed and charged be­tween 2020 and 2024 by the TTPS for crimes com­mit­ted against chil­dren. These com­plaints were re­port­ed in the Cen­tral, East­ern, North­east­ern, North­ern, Port-of-Spain, South­ern, South West­ern, West­ern and To­ba­go di­vi­sions.

The sta­tis­tics were ob­tained from the TTPS Gen­der-Based Vi­o­lence Unit and CPU head­ed by act­ing Su­per­in­ten­dent Michelle Row­ley-Pow­der who ad­mit­ted in an in­ter­view with the Sun­day Guardian that do­mes­tic vi­o­lence cas­es in T&T are on the rise.

Speak­ing at the St Clair Po­lice Sta­tion lead­ing up to the 16 days of ac­tivism on gen­der-based vi­o­lence which com­menced on No­vem­ber 25 and will end on De­cem­ber 10, Pow­der-Row­ley said her goal is to make vul­ner­a­ble women and chil­dren hard tar­gets.

At least 97 per cent of do­mes­tic vi­o­lence vic­tims are women.

From De­cem­ber last year to Oc­to­ber of this year, three moth­ers and four chil­dren were bru­tal­ly mur­dered.

The lat­est vic­tim was Tara Gee­ta Ram­sa­roop, 34, and her 14-month-old daugh­ter Ja­da whose throats were slit in Oc­to­ber at their Bar­rack­pore home. Ram­sa­roop was mur­dered by her for­mer lover and the fa­ther of her chil­dren.

In Sep­tem­ber, Sarah Smith, 33, and her two chil­dren Gen­uine, three, and Phoenix, 18 months, were found dead in­side a de­com­mis­sioned Wa­ter and Sew­er­age Au­thor­i­ty tank in Par­latu­vi­er, To­ba­go. An au­top­sy re­vealed that the moth­er and chil­dren died of blunt force trau­ma to their heads.

Last De­cem­ber, Hol­lice Thomas, 40, and her 12-year-old son Noel Thomas were stabbed to death at their Bat­too Street, Mara­bel­la, home.

The killings of these women and chil­dren are just the tip of the ice­berg.

Dozens of lives have been tak­en in pre­vi­ous years, and some fam­i­lies are still await­ing jus­tice.

“We strong­ly be­lieve that there is a con­nec­tion be­tween bul­ly­ing at schools and do­mes­tic vi­o­lence. If we vis­it the homes of these bul­lies we see that do­mes­tic vi­o­lence is preva­lent,” Row­ley-Pow­der said.

Bul­ly­ing is one fac­tor that con­tributes to do­mes­tic vi­o­lence. Oth­ers in­clude con­flicts, pover­ty, fi­nan­cial chal­lenges, jeal­ousy and men­tal ill­ness.

Row­ley-Pow­der said in Ju­ly the SVD, which has 235 of­fi­cers of vary­ing ranks, em­barked on an ar­rest and charge cam­paign which has been reap­ing re­sults. She said 71 per­pe­tra­tors aged 18 to 73 were ar­rest­ed and charged with vary­ing of­fences be­tween Au­gust 1 and No­vem­ber 21. Sev­er­al of the per­pe­tra­tors have been tak­en be­fore the courts for in­de­cent as­sault and sex­u­al touch­ing of mi­nors.

She ad­mit­ted there was a preva­lence of sex­u­al touch­ing of chil­dren be­tween the ages of 11 to 15.

“Most of the re­ports came out of the East­ern and North­ern di­vi­sions.”

Oth­ers were charged with breach­ing a pro­tec­tion or­der, re­sist­ing ar­rest, griev­ous sex­u­al as­sault, as­sault by beat­ing and rape.

Row­ley-Pow­der said while the SVD has been re­mov­ing these of­fend­ers from so­ci­ety, there is a big­ger is­sue which needs ad­dress­ing why they are com­mit­ting these acts.

“ We need to work with some alacrity,” she said.

Row­ley-Pow­der said in re­cent times said the North­ern Di­vi­sion has spo­ken about in­ter­nal sen­si­ti­sa­tion and al­so “ob­served that a lot of the per­pe­tra­tors of do­mes­tic vi­o­lence are some­times peo­ple in the ser­vices, dif­fer­ent ser­vices, and they have de­cid­ed to do some in­ter­nal sen­si­ti­sa­tion in the dif­fer­ent ser­vices based on what their da­ta is show­ing. That has been hap­pen­ing re­cent­ly.”

Her of­fi­cers will al­so de­vel­op strate­gies to sen­si­tise, bring aware­ness and ed­u­cate the pub­lic on gen­der-based vi­o­lence dur­ing these 16 days.

Row­ley-Pow­der al­so point­ed out that there are in­suf­fi­cient safe hous­es for do­mes­tic vi­o­lence vic­tims in Trinidad. In To­ba­go, women can on­ly be ac­com­mo­dat­ed for 72 hours.

She plead­ed with the pub­lic to re­port mat­ters of do­mes­tic vi­o­lence to the po­lice which can be done anony­mous­ly.

“We tend to turn a blind and think it is not our busi­ness. But are we re­al­ly be­ing our broth­er’s keep­er? As a so­ci­ety, we need to look out for one an­oth­er.”

Low Con­vic­tion Rate

On av­er­age, a woman is killed in do­mes­tic or in­ti­mate part­ner vi­o­lence every 11 days, while there are four dai­ly re­ports of a woman be­ing beat­en in Trinidad and To­ba­go, ac­cord­ing to da­ta from the Of­fice of the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al and Min­istry of Le­gal Af­fairs.

Yet, not a sin­gle per­son was con­vict­ed of killing any of the 190 women killed in do­mes­tic/in­ti­mate part­ner vi­o­lence be­tween Jan­u­ary and Au­gust 21. How­ev­er, 103 peo­ple were charged with homi­cides against women dur­ing that time, mean­ing that the ma­jor­i­ty of ap­prox­i­mate­ly 87 killers walked free (some com­mit­ted sui­cide as part of the mur­der).

Forty-six abusers out of a re­port­ed 8,807 cas­es (0.5 per cent con­vic­tion rate) were con­vict­ed for as­sault by beat­ing. On­ly 226 of the abusers were charged, mean­ing that more than 98 per cent of abusers walked free (8,581 peo­ple).

Not one per­son was con­vict­ed for the 117 re­port­ed sex­u­al abus­es - 15 peo­ple were charged with sex­u­al abuse, mean­ing that 112 peo­ple have faced no pun­ish­ment thus far.

Ad­di­tion­al­ly, there were 1,169 re­ports of breach­es of pro­tec­tion or­ders.

Of on­line and hot­line re­ports made to the court, 709 men were charged with breach­ing the or­ders (61 per cent), while 140 were con­vict­ed - a con­vic­tion rate of just 12 per cent.

Mean­while, ac­cord­ing to UN Women da­ta, 44 per cent of T&T women, who have been in a re­la­tion­ship, have suf­fered phys­i­cal, sex­u­al, emo­tion­al or eco­nom­ic vi­o­lence.

Be­tween 1991 and 1996, 121 peo­ple were killed in do­mes­tic vi­o­lence in­ci­dents - 80 women, 39 chil­dren and two men.

Be­tween 2010 and 2015, there were 11,441 re­ports of do­mes­tic vi­o­lence in­ci­dents. 75 per cent were to­wards women. 

Be­tween March 2020 and March 2022, there were 6,250 do­mes­tic vi­o­lence re­ports made to po­lice.

In 2023, the Min­is­ter re­spon­si­ble for Gen­der and Child Af­fairs in the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter Ayan­na Web­ster-Roy said there was a 42 per cent in­crease in do­mes­tic vi­o­lence re­ports since 2021.

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“The da­ta demon­strate the youth­ful­ness of this phe­nom­e­non with most of the vic­tims rang­ing from 15 to 35 years of age,” she said.

There have been, at least, 28 mur­ders re­lat­ed to do­mes­tic vi­o­lence in 2024. Of this fig­ure, 14 have been con­sid­ered solved (when a per­son is ar­rest­ed and charged) by po­lice.

Sex­u­al vi­o­lence against chil­dren

How the da­ta for the pe­ri­od Jan­u­ary 1, 2020, to Oc­to­ber 31, 2024 stacks up.

Sex­u­al Vi­o­lence: Re­ports of sex­u­al­ly vi­o­lent na­ture against chil­dren from ages two to 17

In March, the World Health Or­gan­i­sa­tion la­belled vi­o­lence against women, par­tic­u­lar­ly in­ti­mate part­ners and sex­u­al vi­o­lence, as a sig­nif­i­cant health is­sue and a vi­o­la­tion of women’s rights.

Sta­tis­tics al­so showed from 2022 to Oc­to­ber 31, 2024, 215 women be­tween the ages of 18 and 41 had made “sex­u­al of­fences” re­ports to the po­lice. In 2022, there were 67 re­ports. Last year the fig­ure in­creased to 84.

In the last ten months of this year, 64 women filed re­ports. Of the 215 mat­ters re­port­ed, the po­lice ar­rest­ed  22 males be­tween 2021 and 2024 on sex­u­al of­fences mat­ters. 

The TTPS stat­ed be­tween 2018 and 2022, its Crime and Prob­lem Analy­sis (CA­PA) branch re­port­ed that 4,667 women and girls were vic­tims of sex­u­al vi­o­lence.

A break­down of these fig­ures was not pro­vid­ed.

Da­ta ob­tained from the CPU al­so showed in the nine di­vi­sions there were 5,026 re­ports of “a sex­u­al­ly vi­o­lent na­ture” against chil­dren. The chil­dren ranged from ages two to 17.

An analy­sis of the da­ta showed that the North­ern Di­vi­sion had the high­est num­ber of re­ports with 917.

From Jan­u­ary 1 to Oc­to­ber 31 of this year, this di­vi­sion record­ed 261 re­ports.

This fig­ure rep­re­sent­ed the high­est in all di­vi­sions over the five years. Last year, there were 133 re­ports which showed an in­crease of 96 per cent in 2024.

An ex­am­i­na­tion of the oth­er di­vi­sions showed that the Cen­tral Di­vi­sion had the sec­ond-largest re­port of 826. South­ern Di­vi­sion ranked third with 810 re­ports.

The da­ta showed re­ports of a sex­u­al vi­o­lence na­ture against mi­nors have been de­clin­ing since 2022 in all di­vi­sions. 

In 2022, there were 1,195 re­ports. The fig­ure dropped to 947 last year.

As of Oc­to­ber 31 of this year, the re­ports stood at 729.

Mis­treat­ment of Chil­dren: sex­u­al pen­e­tra­tion is the num­ber one of­fence com­mit­ted against chil­dren.

Ac­cord­ing to the da­ta for the pe­ri­od, there were  10,311 re­ports of sex­u­al of­fences, phys­i­cal abuse, sex­u­al abuse, aban­don­ment/ne­glect and mis­treat­ment against chil­dren un­der the age of 16 reach­ing the CPU. This da­ta was com­piled in the nine di­vi­sions in 58 months.

CPU iden­ti­fied sex­u­al pen­e­tra­tion as the num­ber one of­fence com­mit­ted against chil­dren.

An analy­sis showed that the North­ern Di­vi­sion had the high­est re­ports of  2,345. Cen­tral trailed with 2,257 fol­lowed by South­ern which had 1,380 re­ports. The di­vi­sion with the least re­ports was East­ern which had 563.

In 2022, the di­vi­sions reg­is­tered 2,214 re­ports - the largest in the five years. That fig­ure dropped last year with 1,975 re­ports.

For the last ten months of this year, 1,991 re­ports were made to the po­lice which re­flect­ed an in­crease in of­fences against chil­dren. An­oth­er graph showed the po­lice ar­rest­ed and charged 804 per­pe­tra­tors for these crimes com­mit­ted against chil­dren.

The high­est ar­rest and charge rates were re­port­ed in Cen­tral with 139. To­ba­go and South ar­rest­ed and charged 135 and 109 per­pe­tra­tors. Be­tween 2020 and 2024 a to­tal of 729 of­fend­ers were ar­rest­ed and charged.

For this year, the po­lice ar­rest­ed and charged 75 per­pe­tra­tors. 

Guardian Me­dia was un­able to get da­ta from the Ju­di­cia­ry on the state of pros­e­cu­tion on the mat­ters.

Do­mes­tic Vi­o­lence: South­ern Di­vi­sion had the high­est re­ports in the past five years

Da­ta pro­vid­ed by the TTPS found that 14,296 re­ports of “do­mes­tic vi­o­lence be­tween in­ti­mate part­ners” were made at its nine po­lice di­vi­sions from Jan­u­ary 1, 2020, to Oc­to­ber 31, 2024.

Of the 14,296 re­ports, the South­ern di­vi­sion record­ed a stag­ger­ing 2,919. This di­vi­sion has seen a con­sis­tent rise in re­ports be­tween 2020 and 2023.

In 2020 there were 525 re­ports but the fol­low­ing year (dur­ing the pan­dem­ic) the fig­ure jumped to 597 and yy 2022 it in­creased to 611. Last year, 704 re­ports were lodged which was its high­est to date.

No oth­er di­vi­sion has matched this fig­ure over the five years. How­ev­er, for this year, the di­vi­sion has seen a de­cline of 482 re­ports. 

A clos­er ex­am­i­na­tion of the da­ta showed the North­ern and East­ern di­vi­sions record­ed 2,370 and 2,332 re­ports re­spec­tive­ly. North East­ern had the least of 555.

Of the five years, the nine di­vi­sions record­ed 3,348 re­ports in 2022 - the high­est to date.

A break­down showed that 3,182 and 3,120 re­ports were made in 2021 and 2023 re­spec­tive­ly. 

For this year, the TTPS tab­u­lat­ed 2,218 re­ports- its low­est.

Con­tin­ues to­mor­row