Prime Minister Andrew Holness, is calling for political consensus in dealing with crime in Jamaica, described as one of the countries with the highest homicide rates in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Last year, 1,463 people were murdered, 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 2021 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 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 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 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 before a 12-year-old in urban Jamaica leaves home, he/she would have witnessed an act of violence.
