Anti-crime policies get prime time

Published in the Jamaica Gleaner: Monday | August 13, 2007

Analysts attached to the Caribbean Policy Research Institute (CaPRI) have agreed with the People's National Party's (PNP) identification of organised crime as the root of the country's rising murder rate in its recently launched manifesto.

But CaPRI raps the PNP for not offering specific proposals to address the problem of the 'don system', while praising the Jamaica Labour Party for making a "more dramatic proposition" to address the scourge of violent crime. CaPRI points to the JLP's manifesto proposal to amend Section 40 (2) (g) of the Jamaican Constitution to include the provision that any person convicted from such enactment cannot hold office.

Note CaPRI analysts: "The JLP then is willing to tackle the nexus of organised crime and politics in a way that the PNP has not yet been sufficiently proactive."

Modernisation

They also argue that the PNP's proposed continued modernisation and improvement of the police force - by themselves - is unlikely to seriously impact the murder rate.

In their analysis of the root causes of crime, CaPRI researchers dismiss the argument - posited by the JLP - that poverty contributes to our high murder rate.

States CaPRI: "Poverty does lead to the rise in certain kinds of crime, such as burglary, but not murder. Such a theory would also not account for the comparative case in Trinidad where both wealth and violent crimes are rising in tandem." The analysts also rebut the claim that a decline in family values is the cause for the country's violent streak, saying this is usually the determinant for juvenile delinquency - not professional adult crime.