Solve crime by dealing with the root causes

On February 23, 2007, in my piece called “No public law and order”, I wrote:

“Any effort to permanently deal with…criminality in this country,must not only be addressed at hardened criminals, but must of necessity include an assault on the breakdown of law and order generally. We need to put a stop to the manufacture of criminals by discontinuing the corruption in the public sector and enforcing discipline in the society…Unless we can address these issues we will not be able to maintain discipline in the society. And if we cannot have basic discipline, then these same undisciplined people will grow up to be hardened criminals. What happens is that people will continue to buck the system as much as possible to see what more they can get away with.”


So far we have not managed to address the problem of indiscipline, which has in fact worsened, and like night follows day, we also continue to reap violent crimes with greater intensity. It is therefore no surprise to me that crime is at higher levels today. And, additionally, we see more violent crimes.

A recently released study by the IDB also shows that crime costs Jamaica four per cent of GDP every year, which approximates to $60 billion annually.
At the same time that we are losing $60 billion annually from crime, we are trying to find $16 billion in the fiscal accounts to deliver on the promise for an increase of the income tax threshold to $1.5 million per annum.

The solution to finding this additional $16 billion is that we may have to raid the funds from public sector bodies like the NHT and increase other consumption taxes.
It is therefore obvious to me that the reason for having to squeeze the hapless taxpayers, instead of being able to reduce taxes is the result of very poor governance/public policy over the decades.
This responsibility does not lie with any one administration, as the crime that we are reaping today is the result of poor public policy for more than 40 years. I would go further to say that the responsibility for this is not just with the politicians in Parliament, but also the public sector bureaucracy that has been charged with executing public policy.
In an interview with Minister Bobby Montague, on my TV programme

On Point, he made the very telling statement that we must ensure that we take the time to craft a correct strategy to tame this crime monster once and for all. Because, in my view, crime-fighting policies and initiatives over the years have been woefully ineffective.

For decades we have had several anti-crime police squads with various acronyms. We have imposed numerous states of emergency and pieces of legislation, which in most cases have only served to cause increased strain between the Jamaica Constabulary Force and the citizens.

Over the years, Jamaican citizens have also contributed to the crime problem by seeking to support the politicisation of crime. So when one party is in power they seek to criticise the ruling party — not because any careful analysis is done, but because they are not supporters. As citizens we also support indiscipline. As one person on social media said to me, why do we want to further oppress the transport operator by imposing increased fines for littering or traffic offences? The answer is that if you don’t want to pay the fine, then don’t break the law.

Recently, for example, the Minister announced the acquisition of two boats and an aircraft to monitor the borders. There was immediate outcry from some people, who if they really thought about it would understand that unless we secure our borders, with 145 illegal points of entry, then taking guns off the street will be meaningless, as they can be easily replaced.

But while we continue to announce initiatives to solve crime by deploying more security forces, having a zero tolerance approach (which we should always have had anyway), and putting more resources into crime, I still think that we have failed to address the root causes of crime. And so our efforts will be like treating the symptoms of an illness without finding out what is causing the illness.

As I pointed out in February 2007, the nourishment for crime is the lack of law and order in our environment. This is what, as a country, throughout all our crime strategies, we have failed to address. So while we roll out multiple crime plans, we have never in any serious way addressed the matter of road indiscipline, squatting, night noise, or child abuse for that matter.

The evidence is clear. We have failed to address the deficiencies in the Road Traffic Act and Child Care and Protection Act with any urgency, or in the same manner we pass legislation for retroactive taxes. We have failed to ensure that there is peace and quiet in communities, thus ensuring greater productivity.

And even though we are now talking about child abuse, because it is the current topic, we have not discussed the need for parents to be held accountable for the abuse of children, such as putting them on the roads to sell various items when they should be in school or at home studying. We have not discussed holding parents accountable for children not attending school regularly.

Like any other problem, one can only solve it in a sustainable way by identifying the root cause and taking steps to fix that root problem, while at the same time dealing with the symptoms.

So here are questions to ponder: Is it possible to solve crime without addressing the matter of accountability of parents for their children? Is it possible to solve crime without ensuring that we have a very orderly society, such as the way people drive on the road and ensuring proper zoning and noise levels? Is it possible to solve crime without a properly functioning and efficient justice system? Is it possible to solve crime without ensuring that the people asked to uphold the law (the police) enjoy acceptable working conditions?

The February 2007 article was written 10 years ago, and is as relevant today as it was then. The crime problem has not been solved, and during those 10 years we have spent a lot of resources and had many crime plans.

Still, crime worsens.

In my view, we have failed to address the social issues and law and order challenges, which are the root causes of crime. And, I should add, the main reason for our perpetual fiscal budget challenges.