Murders, social intervention and national security
THE LAMENT by the minister of national security, Horace Chang, last Thursday, that every single social intervention medium has been brought to Montego Bay and have all failed miserably, is notable and significant. The minister acknowledged that the churches, the Peace Management Initiative, the Citizen Security and Justice Programme and others have done some good, but then pointed to their failure to “effect transformation in Montego Bay”.
The minister’s main metric for success, or failure, of the social intervention initiatives is the murder rate. He pointed out that in Montego Bay, the number of homicides moved from 12 per 100,000 in 2007 to 182 per 100,000 in 2017. This alarming escalation made the city one of the most murderous on the planet. Various explanations have been proffered for the frightening development: the growth of gangs, the mushrooming of the scamming epidemic; the appalling social conditions in the squatter communities around the city; and the sense of hopelessness among the youth.
Dr Chang was, in a sense, confirming the findings of the think tank Caribbean Policy Research Institute (CAPRI), which found that social intervention measures have very little impact on the level of violence in depressed communities like August Town. The CAPRI study concluded that gang violence now revolves around power struggles, money, and reprisal killings.
SOCIAL INTERVENTION AND VIOLENCE
One interesting interpretation of the information presented by Dr Chang for Montego Bay is the suggestion that the level of violence and murder increased with more social intervention expenditures. The very sharp upward movement in the homicide rate between 2007 and 2017 coincided with a period of more resources for social intervention. This is worthy of further study.
It was somewhat disappointing that the bold declaration by Minister Chang about the failure of social intervention programmes was not followed by any significant new initiative or insight on how he plans to bring crime down to tolerable levels.
As the minister of national security knows well, reducing murders to tolerable levels will only take place on a sustainable basis when criminals know that there is an almost 100 per cent certainty that they will be caught and punished. In Jamaica today, scores of killers and other criminals walk free with great certainty that they will never be caught. Fixing the ineffectiveness of the police and criminal justice system is, therefore, central in achieving this urgent national objective of reducing murders. The reform of the police force and increasing its size are of far greater importance than social intervention in fighting crime. The minister should also be aware that the level of corruption in the police force is a great hindrance to its effectiveness, as well as a block on the deep-rooted reforms that are needed.
FAILURE OF LAW AND ORDER
Rooting out corruption in the Jamaica Constabulary Force must be part of a broader strategy of anticorruption by the Government, along with a renewed commitment to the rule of law. The general disorder that has overtaken public spaces in our cities and on the roads is symptomatic of the failure of law and order. National prosperity hinges on fixing this central problem.
The reform of the police force, on which so much depends, is a big-ticket item which requires a national consensus and will take a very long time to show results.
Maybe it was the daunting nature of the task to reform the police force that led Minister Chang to remind us of the success of the state of emergency (SOE) as the only tool that resulted in a reduction in the number of murders in Montego Bay. We sincerely hope that the desire to have the SOEs in place for up to seven years is not the anti-crime plan or the replacement for “failed social intervention initiatives”.