The Tribune

By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

DESPITE public outcries to the contrary, violence in the Bahamas has not greatly increased over the last 10 years –– only the nature of the crime has changed, Dr Duane Sands, former FNM candidate for Elizabeth and current head of the Department of Accident and Emergency at the Princess Margaret Hospital, told The Tribune yesterday.

His comments came while speaking about PMH’s assault and trauma related statistics for 2013.

He said: “Since I was head of the Department of Accident and Emergency and even before that, we looked at all of the emergency room visits, and those emergency room visits are broken down according to category, whether it’s a medical admission, surgical admission, et cetera. What we then do is look specifically at the trauma patients, gunshot wounds, stab wounds, assaults, et cetera, and based on the total number of patient visits, we then are able to say we had this many patients who presented with a particular problem and that many patients who presented with a particular problem.

“The 2013 statistics were gathered the same way they were before. Over the years the same methodology has been used for looking at violence and trauma in accidents and emergency.

“I’ve been tracking this information for a number of years and have continued to do so. When we look at the data from 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, I can tell you categorically that violence is not a new phenomenon in the Bahamas.

“Ten years ago we had an assault rate that defined the Bahamas as being one of the most dangerous countries in the world. The only thing that has changed is the emergence of the gun as the weapon of choice in assault activities. The total number of violent encounters hasn’t changed a whole lot. What has changed has been the use of gun as opposed to the knife.”
Dr Sands said that in 2007, the Bahamas had about 125 shootings and 275 stabbings. In 2013, the numbers were 278 shootings and 241 stabbings.

“The total number, while it has increased, didn’t increase that much. But the number of shootings has more than doubled.

“Given the lethality of guns as compared to knives, you can see why more people die when they get shot. There are also more high-powered weapons today, more multiple shootings so someone gets shot three times, four times, eight times and you also see more execution style shootings, where someone gets shot in the head.”

Dr Sands also gave his opinion on how Bahamians can begin addressing the crime problem.

“You want to right-size the approaches to crime,” he said. “An infinitely large police force, numerous courts, a jail the size of Andros, these won’t do.

“Bahamians have to understand the contributions each of us make towards this real problem. The fact that we keep putting window dressing on the Bahamian reality prevents us from coming up with an effective strategy.”