U.B. Belmopan hosts crime symposium

No one seems to have the right recipe to curb crime. And today, students from Belize’s foremost tertiary level institutions gathered at the University of Belize Belmopan campus to attend a symposium on the different aspects of this plague, including its root causes and measures to deal with this crippling issue. The event, organised by the institution and the Ministry of National Security, focused on those key components and included speakers from a wide cross-section of society. The symposium heard a presentation from Coordinator of the Justice Administration at the University of Louisville, Kentucky, Professor J.P. Foster, who spoke on the criminal justice system. U.B.’s Public Information Officer, Silvana Woods explains why it’s important to hold such a forum.

Silvana Woods, Public Information Officer, U.B.
“Our purpose is just to continue to contribute to the National debate but more than that to collate, collect and present to the ministry; here are key points that keep recurring in the literature, from the symposium, from speakers, in the media, what are you going to do about points x, y and z and follow up with them, see how it blends with the Crime control Council’s own recommendations, the ministry’s plans and to continue to be a thorn in the side of the National conscience. Enforcing the current laws that do exist right now, putting on TV, on the media, on Radio, so and so caught for littering paying five hundred, you will start paying attention to the laws; all the laws, even with the littering law we start being strict. It’s very broad-based and it may appear that tomorrow what’s the effect of this forum? There will be no immediate effect except perhaps on an individual level. But the hope definitely is that when we present these ideas to the ministry, that it continues to show what should be highlighted and then we can also track and follow up what’s happening.”