Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This research explores gender differences in fear of crime in Trinidad. Research consistently demonstrates that women express more fear of crime than men, although this topic has not been addressed as thoroughly in developing countries. Based on a survey of approximately 3,000 residents from 10 districts in Trinidad we assess differences between the level of fear expressed by men and women. We also explore the effectiveness of various individual and contextual factors at explaining fear among men and among women. Individual level characteristics include age, race, income, risk of victimization, prior victimization experiences and perception of police service. Contextual factors include neighborhood rates of victimization, poverty level, social control, and social cohesion.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: This paper examines the social function of Hindu nationalism in two contexts: India and Trinidad. Drawing from six months of fieldwork and research in India, this work describes Hindu nationalist ideologies and worldview constructions, which serve principally to mobilize anti-Muslim hostility, maintain the dominance of the middle- and upper- classes, and preserve privileges of male Hindus specifically. Electronic sources, journal articles, and book research serve as the principal sources for a comparison to and analysis of Hindu nationalism in Trinidad, including a case study on the Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha, a Hindu nationalist organization in Trinidad. Due to increased communication between Indian Hindu nationalists and Trinidadians of Indian descent (who make up 40 percent- of Trinidad's population), many Trinidadian Hindus have gained access to and grasped hold of the same Hindu nationalist ideologies and symbols that have spread through India. However, while Hindu nationalism in India and Trinidad, on the surface, bear many similarities, it will be argued that Hindu nationalism in Trinidad simultaneously serves two purposes: to gain respect for the Indians in Trinidad (who are, as a whole, a marginalized group), and, in the context of recent upward mobility among Indo-Trinidadians, to maintain class differences within the Indo-Trinidadian community.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Recent evaluations of health communication campaigns recognize the interplay between interpersonal and mass-mediated communication (Yanovitzky & Rimal, 2006) as opposed to previous emphases on mass-mediated approaches (Freimuth, Massett, & Meltzer, 2006). However, the process of transforming a mass-mediated campaign into one linked to interpersonal communication is not well understood or documented. Against the backdrop of a traditional model of campaign development, this paper explores how post-campaign actions, based on survey findings from an evaluation of a mass-mediated HIV/AIDS campaign, have led to the evolutionary redefining and reformulation of a mass-mediated campaign into one with an interpersonal dimension. The evolution of the second cycle of this campaign suggests a rethinking of the traditional model of health communication campaign development.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This paper will examine why the leaders of two Caribbean countries, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, envision closing the development gap by participating in the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). In 1993, the prime ministers of these two countries announced that they would restructure their domestic economies away from failing inward-oriented strategies to ones that were outward, export driven and therefore in accord with the tenets of neoliberalism. One crucial factor in this adoption of neoliberalism was the renewed commitment to regional trade: deepening of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) regional trade organization towards a Caribbean Single Market; and full support of the FTAA, negotiated through CARICOM?s Regional Trade Machinery. Both countries continue to view the two regional agreements as complimentary, of equal importance, and crucial to meeting domestic development goals. Trinidad and Jamaica have both announced ambitious development plans (Trinidad?s Vision 2020 for example includes specific development targets to be achieved by 2020 to raise development indicators to those of developed countries) that rely on economic growth through increased trade as a result of FTAA. What is the basis for this optimism?This paper will argue that this optimism is based in large measure on the lack of alternatives after the despair of the 1980s. Both countries suffered severe economic shocks, domestic political change, decreases in the amount and type of development aid, massive changes to the region?s military security, and a shifting international political economy. All of these factors combined to place Jamaica and Trinidad into a more marginalized position vis-a-vis the international economy than at any time since independence in 1962. With no alternative growth models to consider, and a wholesale rejection of leftist options arising from the region?s intellectual elite, the adoption of the prevailing international/developed country economic norms presented the best and perhaps only option. There is little empirical evidence to support or refute the theory that asymmetrical free trade agreements like the FTAA will increase economic growth and facilitate development on the scale Jamaica and Trinidad desire. The goal of narrowing the development gap through increased trade from the FTAA, then, is a leap of faith based on the real world dilemma that exclusion from the FTAA will increase the risk of further marginalization and therefore Jamaica and Trinidad will forego any chance for development in the twenty-first century.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Just as a proper medical diagnosis sets the stage for effective treatment, a proper diagnosis of crime problems is crucial for determining which crime prevention strategies are most appropriate. We illustrate the process we followed to diagnose the crime problem in Trinidad and Tobago, a small two-island Caribbean nation experiencing a serious epidemic of violent crime. Our experience in Trinidad and Tobago illustrates the complexity of diagnosing violent crime epidemics in the midst of widespread dissatisfaction with public officials and fear of crime among the population, media outrage over the crime problem, and intense pressure on both public officials and our team of criminologists to “do something” now. Our diagnosis involved an internal and an external component. The internal component focused on the criminal justice apparatus and its “network of capacity” for carrying out crime control reform. The external component focused on the criminogenic factors —drugs, guns, gangs, and other factors— that might have initiated the epidemic increase in violence. This presentation presents initial findings from the diagnosis, including some factors common across nations and other factors unique to Trinidad and Tobago.