Director of the Criminal Justice Research and Planning Unit, Cheryl Willoughby, says implementing research findings from departments such as hers is needed to help stem the tide of crime in Barbados.
“What I have found is that we have all this information that we would have collected over the years. We have pretty much looked at crime using the health model where (like a doctor) we would have evaluated, diagnosed and prescribed,” she told the Sunday Sun.
“This is the same way we need to treat crime right now. I think that is the direction my department has been steered into, where we are using statistics, we are using research to diagnose the problem, make recommendations on how to respond to the problem. But having made those recommendations, you need others to say, ‘Let us give the patient the necessary treatment’ and that is where implementation comes in.”
She suggested a “sustainable, whole country approach” involving every sector “in the treatment aspect of crime”. (GC)
