Vishani Ragobeer is an 18-year-old freelance journalist at the Guyana Chronicle Newspaper. She is also a student of Queen’s College, pursuing an Associate Degree in Humanities (Sociology).
In 2017, Vishani was selected as a Youth Ambassador to represent Guyana for a three-week Caribbean Youth Ambassadors programme in the US. She is also the recipient of three awards from PAHO/WHO for her work in health journalism.
Vishani was named one of the Youths of the Year (2017) for her volunteerism and advocacy by Aspire Youth Guyana.

My Sociology Internal Assesment and youth crime

THREE weeks ago, I was given a break from school for the Christmas vacation. During that time, I was supposed to work on my Internal Assessments (IAs) for my upcoming Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examinations (aka CAPE and more importantly, my death sentence).

I’m not here to complain about how short the vacation was. Instead, I’m here to tell you about my sociology IA, which I can proudly say I actually managed to work on (even if it was the only one I worked on).

So I chose to research measures of alternative sentencing in Guyana. As part of this research, I focused on the work of Specialists in Sustained Youth Development and Research (SSYDR) Inc, a not-for-profit organisation that offers alternative sentencing to young people.

Just to provide some context, youth have become increasingly involved in crime. Studies (especially those done by the United Nations sub-bodies) have linked the perpetuation of youth crime to poverty and the lack of economic opportunities. As sociologist, Robert Merton, ascertains in his social strain theory, one way of achieving socially/culturally approved goals is through “innovation”, which is using socially unapproved or unconventional means.

In my research, I opted to conduct a structured interview as opposed to the more populous practice of disseminating questionnaires, since data collection was a prerequisite of the IA.

While interviewing the Executive Director of SSYDR, Ms. Magda Wills (a sociologist), she related that the programme offers youths life and skills coaching from members of the organisation and links youth to employment opportunities. This is due to being cognisant that more often than not, youths resort to deviant actions because of economic circumstances and equipping them in this manner deters recidivism (the tendency of a convicted criminal to re-offend).

It has an almost flawless track record in providing alternative sentencing and in deterring recidivism, but what stands out for me is that the organisation adopts a very individualised approach in dealing with the young people.

Ms. Wills explained that each youth is designated a coach, who remains their mentor for the duration of their time in the programme (and even after, because a truly meaningful relationship is created). Moreover, there isn’t one clear-cut recipe used to assist the youths. Instead, the coaches almost adopt the youths and learn who they are while training them.

SSYDR operates in what I can describe easily as a safe haven as well. It shares a cohesive relationship with the judiciary, where the magistrates are the ones who request the coaches and connect them with the youths. This is nothing short of lucid and necessitates a productive reintegration of juveniles into society.

Coming back to my IA though, I thought to myself that these research projects are prerequisite for certain subjects perhaps because they challenge you to think outside of academia or provide the nexus between academia and life. Or maybe, it’s just a social sciences thing- in which case, I wouldn’t know otherwise.

Who knows what people usually achieve through engaging in these projects, but I was left more curious than before. And some optimistic part of me hopes that others would share similar sentiments so that my eccentricity isn’t concretised.

My curiosity begs to understand why measures of alternative sentencing haven’t been pounced upon as a means of deterring youth crime and violence, given how remarkably it has worked with SSYDR.
At the same time, I’m envisaging an instance of multi-sectoral, cross-cutting collaborations (similar to SSYDR’s model), geared toward tackling local issues like juvenile detention. And I don’t mean mere brouhaha and clamour about surface-level collaboration, I mean real “Let’s get down to business, to defeat the huns” sense.

What do you make of that?