Investigation in to types of criminal offences in a sample of Jamaicans in Portmore.

AN INVESTIGATION INTO TYPES OF CRIMINAL OFFENCES IN A

SAMPLE OF JAMAICANS IN PORTMORE

For the purpose of this project, crime is defined as any unlawfully act that is committed by anyone, no matter how trivial it may seem. “The use of indecent language in public”, “Begging alms” and “Murder” are all examples of crime although the first two are trivial; while murder is very serious.

Ethical Issues

No society can be absolutely crime free. However, in some countries crime is much higher and more horrible than in others. For example, the Cayman Islands compared with Jamaica. Often, the true picture is unknown. The statistics on crime may be exaggerated to make one country appear worse than it really is or the statistics may be understated to cover up the real state of affairs. Consequently, researchers have to find suitable methods to discover the truth when they are investigating crime objectively in any society.

To this end, it is therefore the main aim of this project to ascertain the true state of crime in the Portmore Community. Portmore is a dormitory community with about 300,000 residents. It is the only are its kind in the entire Caribbean. Most people work outside the community and most children go to school outside of Portmore. Hence, it is quite easy for crime to be frequent because most residents are away from home for almost half of each day.

In conducting this project, the researcher was honest and objective in collecting and analyzing the data and reporting the findings. She recognized also the confidentiality of the important. People do not like to disclose information about themselves if they expect that this information will not be kept a secret. Therefore, the researcher had to reassure each respondent that the data and their identities would only be used for research purposes.

Very few victims of crime wanted to talk about their experiences. The researcher had to persuade them by not exaggerating or dramatizing any given experience. Moreover, discussions had to be held in secret and were minimal in order to extract honest and frank answers without the victims feeling any embarrassment.

Finally, the researcher tried to avoid leading questions so as to ensure that each respondent was free to express true feelings.

Aims

To ascertain the true state of crime in Portmore and whether residents report all criminal activities to the police.
To discoverer the types of crime most frequently committed and the age group that is mostly affected.
To find out the residents’ perception of the police

Limitations

The sample was too small. Hence, the findings should be accepted with caution.
It was very difficulty to find persons who were victims of crime.
Many persons only consider serious offences such as shootings as crime.
Many persons could not spare the time to complete the questionnaires.
It was difficult to condense the data into a report of one thousand words. Hence may important findings had to be omitted.
The time was too short and some respondents did not understand some of the questions.
It was difficult to interpret accurately some of the data.

ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION OF DATA

The General Questionnaire

A General Questionnaire and a Self Report schedule were administered to a sample of six males and nine females. An analysis of the data showed that 11 were single, 13 in the middle class and eight unemployed. 14 of the respondents witnessed crime such as theft, assault and murder (See Tables 1 to 7).

Unemployment, poverty and politics were the most frequent causes of crime in Portmore. Other causes were lack of education, greed and drug addiction. Most respondents felt that people in urban centers are more likely to commit crime than those in rural communities because of high levels of unemployment, over crowding, lack of education and money and more exposure to violence. (See Table 8 to 10)

10 out 15 respondents believed that rural people are more people are more peaceful and honest than urban dwellers mainly because of their friendliness and community spirit. Additionally, they had less need for modern amenities and level exposure to violent behaviour. (See Table 11 and 12)

Table 13 displays the various suggested solutions to crime. These include more employment and educational opportunities, more social activities and more interaction between the people, the police and the politicians. More over idlers should be taken of the streets.

12 respondents think that the police are not doing enough to reduce crime; while seven respondents think that polices influences crime in the Portmore Community (See Tables 14 and 15).

The Self Report Schedule

12 out of 15 respondents were under 40 years old and they were drawn from 13 parish council divisions such as Waterford, Edgewater, Hellshire, Gregory Park and Cumberland (See Tables 1-5). The respondents suffered a wide range of offences. Eight were assaulted, four attempted rape and two malicious wounding. One person was the victim of theft and threats on his life (See Tables 6 and 7 for the full picture).

Only one male made a report to the police, while seven females did likewise. This meant that almost half of the sample did not report the offences to the police although most offences were very serious. This finding clearly provided an answer to the first aim. That is many people do not report known crime to police. Hence it is unlikely that the public would know the true state of crime within Portmore. (See Tables 8 to 10).

Moreover, one person said that the police did not record the complaint. This too can lead to a distortion of the overall crime statistics of the community.

The situation is made worse by the lack of any follow-up by the police. The police according to the views of the sample follow up less than half the crimes reported. This is a very dangerous state of affairs for such a large community. In only one case did the matter go to court and the accused was sentenced. Two others were warned to stay away from the complainants. It is instructive ...