Jamaica's daunting crime statistics could worsen if the global financial crisis has a severe impact on the nation.

Dr Dunstan Campbell, Food and Agriculture Organisation representative to Jamaica, Belize and The Bahamas, said the nation should brace for an increase in crime and violence if the economic downturn is not mitigated.

Poverty

"What we find at the United Nations (UN), if poverty increases, so does crime and violence," said Campbell.

He was speaking last Thursday at a Gleaner Editors' Forum at the newspaper's North Street offices.

Campbell added that the high cost of living would push more poor Jamaicans into a life of crime to survive.

Peter Bunting, opposition spokesman on national security, agrees. In a telephone interview with The Gleaner on Tuesday, he argued that the slowdown could fuel a rise in white-collar crime.

"They should look at crime and the likely effects, or do something now regarding what is happening," said Bunting of a team of technocrats set up by Government to monitor the crisis.

Premature

Gilbert Scott, permanent secretary in the Ministry of National Security, said it was premature to suggest that the global crisis could impact the country's crime rate.

"Until we get direction from that (the established task force), we cannot go on that kind of speculation," said Scott.

"We don't know what impact is likely to happen," the permanent secretary added.

The financial meltdown seems to have already taken a toll on the United States' crime figures.

Last Tuesday, a California man allegedly became distraught because he could not find work. He shot and killed five members of his family before committing suicide inside a home in an upscale San Fernando Valley community.

shelly-ann.thompson@gleanerjm.com.

'What we find at the United Nations, if poverty increases, so does crime and violence.'