The Minister of Justice commissioned an investigation on juvenile crime on Sint Maarten. This is because regular concerns have been expressed about the increase in juvenile delinquency in Sint Maarten, while the official data from the Prosecutor’s Office and the police does not reflect this increase. The research was conducted by Emma Merckx and Lieke Buurman, both graduate students of the Master Youth Law. They were guided by the Prosecutor’s Office in St. Maarten.
High schools, the police, the Bureau of Statistics and the Truancy Office cooperated with the research. Furthermore 460 high school students from the fourth grade have filled out a survey. The research was done over a three month period, from December 2014 till February 2015. In those three months the police reported 39 incidents with 53 suspects involved. Assault is by far the most reported incident, followed by theft and drug crime. During the same period 85 incidents, involving 116 students were reported by the high schools. The most frequently reported incidents were assault, threat and theft. Of the 460 fourth grade high school students that filled in the survey, nearly half of them reported to have assaulted someone at some point in time. The students indicated that according to them assault is the most committed incident among high school students, followed by destruction and theft. Many students reported that they have not been punished for their acts. According to their own survey, the students that reported delinquent behaviour have slightly more often repeated a class, have been suspended more times, skipped more classes, drink more alcohol and more often use drugs. The research shows that in most cases it’s the school that punishes the student that committed an punishable act. The most common penalty is a suspension.
According to youth prosecutor Karola van Nie this is however not always the most effective intervention. Suspension can lead to expulsion, which can lead to more and severe criminal behaviour. But without a police report the Public Prosecutor cannot prosecute, while in juvenile criminal law lots of different effective interventions are possible, like a training, community service or youth probation by the Court of Guardianship. This also applies for enforcing the Truancy law. The research shows that skipping classes happens a lot, but truancy is not always well registered, which means that the truancy officers are not able to write up a police report for the Prosecutor’s Office.
The research report has been officially offered to the Minister of Justice as well as to the Minister of Education. Both Ministers expressed that they recognize the results of the research and expressed their commitment to work together when it comes to dealing with youth crime. The full report can be downloaded from sintmaartengov.org.