Crime and violence is a problem that affects all areas of the world, but in the Caribbean region, especially Jamaica, crime and violence has reached endemic proportions.

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The University of the West Indies

Name: Toni-Jan Pryce

Course: Social Psychology

Code: PS21D

CRIME AND VIOLENCE IN THE CARIBBEAN

        Crime and violence is a problem that affects all areas of the world, but in the Caribbean region, especially Jamaica, crime and violence has reached endemic proportions. Crime can be defined as an act punishable by law, which is an activity going against the laws of a country. Crime constitutes things like murders (homicides), kidnappings, drug dealings and use, domestic violence and manslaughter among others. Violence on the other hand, is the undue exercise of physical force. This social problem is significant because it is important to evaluate crime, to know how it is generated, why it happens, what its consequences are and how it affects society, so that it can be dealt with in a proper manner and hopefully can decrease it over time.

Violent crime in Jamaica has been given wide attention from policy makers and the general population. The sharp increase in crimes of violence in Jamaica has continued without decreasing in strength for two decades. The physical and social landscape of the country has been altered by this violent crime wave. Barbed-wire fences and burglar bars have become a norm in the architecture of the urban areas. One of the fastest growing sectors in Jamaica is the private security sector (Phillips 1988). Phillips also stated in his book Crime and Jamaica that ‘today no one is startled by the presence of armed guards with watchful attack dogs, patrolling shopping plazas and office buildings. Increasingly Jamaica has the appearance of a country under siege’ (Phillips 1988).

Along with crime and violence affecting the physical environment, it also has an impact on popular attitudes and on our culture. There have been an emergence in recent years of something called ‘ghetto heroes’, more popularly known as ‘Dons’, who live by and with the gun, but who are esteemed and are protected by the communities from which they emerge. These so called ‘Dons’ are the leaders of the local gangs, they control the community in which they live, they are the unofficial authority figures. Therefore because of this the people in the communities live in fear of these ‘Area Dons’.

The appraisal of the violent hero is only one aspect of the intrusion of violence into our culture. Language, behaviour, music and other aspects of life have become increasingly conditioned by this violence (Phillips 1988). An example comes from the dance halls, in which violence and crime is embedded into the fabric of its existence. Young teens and even young adults because of intoxication from excessive alcohol use and drug use at these dance hall parties, engage in many acts of violence and crime. Our language has changed over the years we now adopt the speech patterns of the Jamaican musical artists. Music has also evolved through the years, and this change can be attributed to the violence and crime that happens in the country. Nowadays we see many songs riddled with war, fighting, guns, and drugs.

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Jamaica has had one of the highest murder rates in the world for years, ranking third after South Africa and Brazil in the latest U.N. estimates, despite its reputation as a happy-go-lucky island of sun, sand and reggae. Overall, 505 people have been slain this year, most of them young, unemployed men who belong to heavily armed drug gangs that compete for turf in poor neighborhoods in and around Kingston. A total of 185 people were killed in May and June, most of them in the capital (Koyaleski 1999).

According to Hyacinth Ellis (1988), reported criminal violence against the person ...

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