Vernon Daley

Prime Minister Bruce Golding was down in Trinidad on the weekend at a CARICOM crime summit proposing a "serious study" on the causes of crime, both here and in Trinidad and Tobago.

We have had so many studies done over the years about the causes of crime here in Jamaica that I can't see how it helps to do another. If we are to set about studying anything at all, it might be useful to study why the recommendations of all those studies have not been implemented.

To be fair to Mr Golding, he emphasised that what he wanted was a "serious" study. So, I have to take that to mean that he is not impressed by the many studies that have been done before his administration taking office.

Come to think of it, we haven't heard too much about the crime report done by former Police Commissioner Col Trevor MacMillan, which was commissioned by the Jamaica Labour Party while it was in Opposition. Maybe it is being implemented without our knowing. Though, I can't imagine why the Government would want to keep such a thing secret.

I don't think we can await or even afford another study right now while 1,500 people are being slaughtered each year. We need some quick action to stop the bloodletting.

Real terms

Against that background, I am looking forward to the Budget and Sectoral Debates this year to hear what this new Government is going to be doing, in real terms, to get on top of the crime situation.

I was impressed by the Throne Speech which suggests that the administration will be putting a great deal of emphasis on young men as a key plank in its anti-crime strategy. I believe that is a move in the right direction. No study needed to confirm that.

Young men between 15 and 30 are the ones mostly responsible for the country's huge crime problem and some way has to be found to give them an alternative to squeezing the trigger of a gun. Mr Golding summed up the situation quite correctly when he spoke to reporters in Trinidad about the country's struggle to bring killings under control.

Young males underperforming

"We are particularly concerned about our young males, they are under-performing in schools in comparison to girls, the vast majority of the crimes being committed involve young men and we accept that fighting crime is not simply a matter of going up to the criminals, we also will have to seek to provide them with an alternative to a life of crime.

"That is going to require significant levels of social intervention. We are going to provide training opportunities to try to rebuild the family unit because that is part of the problem. You have young persons growing up in homes that offer them no guidance, they grow up without a value system, they are not able to differentiate between right and wrong."

It sounds good but we now need the details.

I've written in this column before about the neglect of important groupings such as community youth clubs, which can have a very profound role in steering young people on the right path. Promoting an intensive social agenda in fighting crime is as important as equipping the police with the latest technology to battle vicious criminals in the street. However, we seem to have focused more on the latter than the former, with little to show for it.

Maybe this time things will be different.