These re­sults are from a na­tion­wide sur­vey on cur­rent is­sues con­duct­ed by the ANSA McAL Psy­cho­log­i­cal Re­search Cen­tre, Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies, St Au­gus­tine for the Trinidad Guardian. The ma­jor in­ten­tion of this sur­vey is to as­sess pop­u­lar opin­ion on a num­ber of ma­jor is­sues.

A rep­re­sen­ta­tive ran­dom sam­ple of 503 re­spon­dents were in­ter­viewed and com­prised peo­ple 18 years and over with 34 per cent Afro-Trinida­di­ans, 40 per cent In­do-Trinida­di­ans, 25 per cent Mixed peo­ple and one per cent Oth­er Eth­nic groups. The sam­ple con­sist­ed of 51 per cent fe­males. Re­spon­dents were se­lect­ed us­ing the Ran­dom Dig­it Di­al­ing Method.

The mar­gin of er­ror is plus or mi­nus four per cent. This poll was con­duct­ed dur­ing the pe­ri­od May 10–12 2013 and was su­per­vised by Dr Derek Chadee, di­rec­tor, ANSA McAL Psy­cho­log­i­cal Re­search Cen­tre and se­nior lec­tur­er, De­part­ment of Be­hav­iour­al Sci­ences, Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies, St Au­gus­tine.

In re­sponse to this ques­tion, more than 50 per cent of re­spon­dents in­di­cat­ed that they were un­hap­py with the way crime is be­ing ad­dressed. Specif­i­cal­ly, to this ques­tion 1 per cent stat­ed "ex­cel­lent", 11 per cent "good", 34 per cent "fair", 36 per cent "poor" and 18 per cent "ex­treme­ly poor".For the analy­ses that fol­low, the re­spons­es "ex­cel­lent" and "good" were re­cod­ed in­to the cat­e­go­ry "good," while "poor" and "ex­treme­ly poor" were re­cod­ed in­to the cat­e­go­ry "poor."

Analysing re­spons­es by eth­nic groups showed that the re­sponse of "poor" was more like­ly to be stat­ed by Afro-Trinida­di­an (67 per cent) and Mixed peo­ple (62 per cent) than In­do-Trinida­di­an (40 per cent). There were mar­gin­al dif­fer­ences across eth­nic groups for the re­sponse "fair" with 37 per cent In­do-Trinida­di­an, 31 per cent Afro-Trinida­di­an and 31 per cent Mixed peo­ple. When asked about the Gov­ern­ment's per­for­mance on deal­ing with crime, the re­sponse "good" was stat­ed by 23 per cent In­do-Trinida­di­ans, 7 per cent Mixed peo­ple and 2 per cent Afro-Trinida­di­ans.

With re­gards to sex, sim­i­lar pro­por­tions of males and fe­males were like­ly to re­spond "poor." Specif­i­cal­ly, 55 per cent fe­males and 54 per cent males gave this re­sponse to the ques­tion. Peo­ple who stat­ed "fair", 36 per cent were male and 32 per cent were fe­male. The re­sponse of "good" was stat­ed by 13 per cent fe­males and 10 per cent males.

As­sess­ing re­spons­es by age showed that "poor" was in­di­cat­ed by 55 per cent in the 18-30 age group, 53 per cent in the 31-40 age group, 45 per cent in the 41-50 age group and 60 per cent in the 51 and over age group.

The re­sponse of "fair" was in­di­cat­ed by 33 per cent of the 18-30 year olds, 42 per cent in the 31-40 age group, 39 per cent in the 41-50 age group and 28 per cent of the 51 years and over age group. Of peo­ple stat­ing "good",12 per cent were 18-30 years, 5 per cent were be­tween the ages of 31-40, 16 per cent were 41-50 and 12 per cent were from the 51 and over age group.

Re­gard­ing ed­u­ca­tion, sec­ondary ed­u­cat­ed peo­ple were least like­ly to rate the Gov­ern­ment's han­dling of crime as "poor". Specif­i­cal­ly, 60 per cent of the re­spons­es came from the tech­ni­cal/vo­ca­tion­al, 58 per cent from pri­ma­ry, 56 per cent from ter­tiary and 50 per cent from sec­ondary.

The re­sponse of "fair" was in­di­cat­ed by 39 per cent of sec­ondary ed­u­cat­ed peo­ple, 32 per cent from tech­ni­cal/vo­ca­tion­al, 31 per cent from ter­tiary and 30 per cent pri­ma­ry ed­u­cat­ed peo­ple. A rat­ing of "good" was stat­ed by 13 per cent ter­tiary ed­u­cat­ed, 12 per cent pri­ma­ry, 11 per cent sec­ondary and eight per cent tech­ni­cal/vo­ca­tion­al ed­u­cat­ed re­spon­dents.

PUB­LIC COM­MENTS

How would you rate the per­for­mance of the Gov­ern­ment over the last three years on crime?

EX­TREME­LY POOR/POOR

�2 They are not do­ing any­thing new to fight crime.

�2 The cur­few was a waste of time.

�2 The time tak­en to re­spond to crime is too long.

FAIR

�2 Every­body needs to help in the fight against crime, not the Gov­ern­ment alone.

�2 The crime sit­u­a­tion has got­ten slight­ly bet­ter but could still im­prove a lot.

�2 Crime in some ar­eas has been re­duced.

GOOD/EX­CEL­LENT

�2 The Gov­ern­ment does not cause crime, is the peo­ple, the peo­ple of the coun­try to blame.

�2 The Gov­ern­ment try­ing dif­fer­ent things, so it might take some time to see the re­sults.

�2 Jack Warn­er did a lot to help im­prove the crime sit­u­a­tion in the coun­try.

Crime

How would you rate the per­for­mance of the Gov­ern­ment over the last three years on deal­ing with crime?

Ex­cel­lent 1%

Good 11%

Fair 34%

Poor 36%

Ex­treme­ly Poor 18%