Prime Minister Holness Calls for Political Consensus in Dealing With Crime
KINGSTON, Jamaica – Prime Minister Andrew Holness, is calling for political consensus in dealing with the matter of crime in Jamaica, described as one of the countries with the highest homicide rates in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Prime Minister, the Most Hon. Andrew Holness (right), speaks with Chairman, National Commission on Violence Prevention, Professor Maureen Samms-Vaughan, at the public presentation of the Commission at the Banquet Hall, Jamaica House, on August 11. (Photo courtesy of JIS/YHOMO HUTCHINSON)Last year, 1,463 people were murdered here last year, slightly up from 1,323 victims a year earlier. So far this year, the death toll has been put at 909 for the period January 1 to August 8, according to figures released by the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF). The comparative figure for last year was 880.
Holness, speaking at the National Commission on Violence Prevention noted that “we haven’t been able to get to political consensus.
“We are attempting it. We have a framework in place, we have the Crime Monitoring Oversight Committee (CMOC), but we haven’t reached genuine consensus on how to tackle crime,” he said, adding that he hopes that once the political class is confronted with factual data, recommendations, and conclusions from the Commission, which is an independent body, they “would then have to look at it and come to a reasonable understanding as to what we need to implement”.
Holness said that reaching an agreement is important in ensuring continuity of policy measures when administrations change.
“There are some things that you can put into law, but governments change and the priority for enforcement can change. But… once you have that underpinning consensus, then you can really make the change.”
Prime Minister Holness said that the entire country benefits from the agreement on a strategy that effectively treats with crime and violence.
“So, I am using this platform to say to our counterparts in the Opposition, let us create a space in which the treatment of violence is not contested politically and that we share in the victory of overcoming violence. That is going to be a signal achievement for the country, and it doesn’t have to be anybody getting political benefit off it,” he added.
The Commission, which is chaired by internationally renowned researcher, Professor Maureen Samms-Vaughan, is mandated to conduct a continuing comprehensive review of all existing public and private violence-prevention programs as well as the strategies of the Government.
Its purpose is to identify gaps in the prevention and intervention services and to make recommendations with respect to violence prevention and intervention programs.
Professor Samms-Vaughan, in her presentation, said that nearly 80 percent of the population live in communities where there is trauma.
“The majority of the communities that have zero crimes are deep rural communities. We have a lot to learn from them.”
Providing statistics on how violence plays out in children’s daily lives, she said that before a 12-year-old in urban Jamaica leaves home, he/she would have witnessed an act of violence.
“Two out of three see and hear verbal abuse, one out of three see adults throwing objects and hitting each other, one out of five see adults beat each other, threaten or use a gun or knife. The prevention arm is dispute resolution and addressing gender-based violence, intimate partner violence and family violence,” Professor Samms-Vaughan said, noting that children also have personal experience of violence before they leave home.
“Eight out of 10 get verbal aggression, eight out of 10 get hit. So, the prevention aspect here is parenting support, including mental health [assistance] and legislation to ban corporal punishment.
“All of this has to be based on public education that brings everybody together… to discuss our harmful cultural norms, to discuss the impact of violence on our children and to discuss specific prevention mechanisms,” Professor Samms-Vaughan said.
