Last year, Saint Lucia had a per capita murder rate of around 24 per 100,000, putting it on a par with one of America’s most deadly cities, Chicago. The high incidence of homicides and other violent crimes isn’t just bad for citizens, communities and society at large, it’s also bad for business. Crime and violence costs the Caribbean around 3 per cent of its entire GDP, according to a 2017 study from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), as it erodes business, economic growth, tourism, emigration and citizen security.