The loss of spiritual values and the worship of money and material possessions could be contributing factors for the surge of violent crime in Dominican communities.
Richard Charles a resident of Marigot made that observation at a Cabinet organized forum on crime and violence in Marigot earlier this week.
He said the values that existed before have been lost.
“The values that we learnt from the good book the bible, we have lost that. Some of us have set ourselves for the dollar and material things and these are the areas that we are gravitating towards”.
Charles says these behaviours have caused many people to lose their moral integrity.
“We lose all principle and we just go out to “bling” or to get certain things no matter what the cost. Whether we prostitute ourselves or we kill our neighbour’s child with drugs or whatever we do once we make the dollar that is what is important to some of us”.
Charles is also laying blame to irresponsible behaviours of some adults within the society.
“Some adults in society always beat up on the young people but the youth can only relate to what they see. When a child misbehaves in school and it’s brought to the parents’ attention, sometimes the way the parents respond is questionable, there are some parents who go to the school to fight with teachers and students”.
Charles is suggesting that parents carefully examine the manner in which they respond to conflicts with their children as negative behaviours will eventually filter down to the child.
“When the parents make certain comments at home the child is hearing. Children are very smart and they are hearing what is going on and are very observant. We as adults fail to realize that the children are learning from us the good and the bad,”Charles added.
Over the past few months the Government of Dominica has embarked on a number of forums geared at getting to the root of the cause of crime in Dominica with the hope of identifying ways in which criminal activities could be minimized.