COVID-19 and crime
The most noticeable difference between the American and Jamaican approach is that in the former the security forces target criminals by working with communities. In Jamaica it is the opposite. The strategy is one of targeting communities instead of criminals, thereby stigmatising them as unsafe and ostracising them from society. With the security forces locked in war against communities, residents naturally become distrustful of police. Left to fend for themselves, the communities become a haven for criminals
OVER the past two decades Jamaica has broken the 1,000 murder-per-year mark with more regularity than Asafa Powell has run the 100 metres race below ten seconds. The murder rate of this sun-drenched pearl in the Caribbean Sea becomes even more alarming when compared to the global average. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in 2017 reported a global average intentional homicide rate of just above 6 per 100,000 people. In 2020 Jamaica remained one of the most violent countries in the world, with approximately 46 homicides per 100,000 people. That is almost eight times the global average.
At the start of the novel coronavirus pandemic last March, it seemed, for a while, as if the various health protocols and the joined-up approach led by the health ministry toward enforcing them would have a dampening effect on the murder rate. Writing in the January 3, 2021 edition of the Sunday
Observer, respected community activist and social commentator Horace Levy called for the Government to abandon the current crime strategy for one designed along the lines of that used to battle COVID-19. Such thought proved to be an oversimplification of the solution to both the health pandemic and crime. We have seen a spike, not a decrease in COVID-19 and in murders.
America, a much bigger and richer country than Jamaica, has experienced an alarming 20 per cent increase in homicide since the start of the pandemic. Fearing what may come in the hot summer months ahead when there is a natural spike in murders, President Joe Biden, along with his Attorney General Merrick Garland, addressed the nation on June 23, 2021, unveiling a raft of measures intended to tame the beast. Our Government and security officials, who continue to stubbornly stick with a failed strategy, if it can be called that, should examine these. There may be something to be learnt.
The American violent crime reduction strategy announced by the president, and detailed by his attorney general, is built around five principles: 1) setting important enforcement priorities in strategic areas; 2) investing in community-based prevention and intervention programmes; 3) fostering trust with and earning legitimacy in communities; 4) making enhanced resources available to help prevent and disrupt violent crime and focusing on the most dangerous, most violent offenders; 5) measuring the results of these efforts by a decrease in violent crime and not merely by the number of arrests and convictions.
The most noticeable difference between the American and Jamaican approach is that in the former, the security forces target criminals by working with communities. In Jamaica it is the opposite. The strategy is one of targeting communities instead of criminals, thereby stigmatising them as unsafe and ostracising them from society. With the security forces locked in war against communities, residents naturally become distrustful of police. Left to fend for themselves the communities become havens for criminals.
In his speech, US Department of Justice head, Merrick Garland said, “Communityled efforts are vital to preventing violence before it occurs. The Justice Department has available over US$1 billion in funding through over a dozen grant programmes that can be used to support evidence-based community violence intervention strategies.” Contrast that with what occurs in Jamaica where, in many of the troubled communities, the cost of paramilitary-style policing is Government’s biggest ongoing, non-programmed expenditure. COVID-19 has served to expose the foolhardiness of this strategy and the need for a rethink to address the traditional root causes of crime as well as the effect of the fuel poured by the pandemic on the raging inferno.
In his brief address following that of Garland’s, President Biden quoted his mother who would often say, “An idle mind is the devil’s workshop.” Based on that simple maxim he shared a formula that helps to explain the connection he sees between COVID-19 and crime. Young people in tough communities + no school + no jobs = more trouble.
The Global Survey on Youth and COVID-19, conducted by partners of the Global Initiative on Decent Jobs for Youth between April and May 2020, painted a picture of a looming crisis in youth education and employment, with resulting anxiety and depression. The research is not conclusive in making the link between COVID-19 and crime, but deterioration in young people’s mental well-being could lead to increased violence.
Domestic crime could also be severely impacted by the fact that more people are unemployed or laid off and are at home, resulting in a greater likelihood of violence, especially where abusive relationships exist. The United Nations is reporting close to a 20 per cent rise in so-called family violence that could be attributed to the ongoing pandemic.
One possible causal relationship that should not be overlooked is the backlog of cases choking the courts. The novel coronavirus pandemic has exacerbated the situation in countries like Jamaica, where a properly functioning criminal justice system has been a long-standing need.
If the violent crime reduction strategy being employed in Jamaica was not effective in the pre-pandemic period, surely one could not expect that it would be effective now.
e-mail: hmorgan@cwjamaica.com