Robert Buddan

There are some revealing findings from the recent World Bank/United Nations study on crime in the Caribbean that should allow us to see our problems more clearly.

The predominantly held view has been that crime is a result of poverty. But crime rates have risen in Jamaica while poverty rates have been cut in half over the past 10 years. Crime rates have also risen while unemployment rates have halved in the last 17 years. Crime rates have sharply increased in Trinidad and Tobago, especially since 2000, despite the oil price bonanza and economic boom in that country. The study even suggests that Trinidad might now be considered in the same category as Jamaica for having an established pattern of armed crime.

There is no one-dimensional relationship between crime rates and poverty; crime rates and unemployment; and crime rates and economic growth rates. The World Bank/UN study says there is no single solution, no magic bullet to eradicate crime either.

Of all the possible causes of crime, the study finds that the single most important one is drug trafficking, and this is complemented by the availability of guns. It found that, despite the diversity of the Caribbean, they share the common problem of being caught in the crossfire of drug trafficking.

Crime, Violence and Garrisons

Another view we hold is that crime is a political problem. The World Bank/UN report makes no such claim. There is reference to garrison politics that was not specific to Jamaica.What we call garrison constituencies here can be found in other countries in and outside the region. There is no crime category referred to as 'political violence/murder/crime'.

The report does point to the garrison phenomenon, called by other names in North America (ghettos), Latin America (barrios marginales, villas miseria) and the Caribbean (Jamaica, Trinidad, Guyana, Haiti), evident in urban, densely populated, and underserved areas. Add guns and drugs to the mix and the result is crime.

Guns and crime are used for far more lucrative purposes than politics. They protect drug transportation routes, protect turf, intimidate customers and competitors,empower gangs, discipline members, coerce communities, and execute informers.

Gangs patronise communities more than politicians patronise voters.

The report repeats regularly that narcotics trafficking is at the heart of high crime rates, and that gun ownership is an outgrowth of the drug trade. The great irony is that no gun is manufactured by any CARICOM country and yet the Caribbean has the highest per capita murder rate among all regions in the world.

Guns come from regional manufacturing countries (Brazil, Mexico, Venezuela, Dominican Republic); weapons left over from Cold War supplies to guerrilla armies; from previous interventions, such as the Grenada invasion, and from countries in conflict (Haiti, Guatemala and Nicaragua).

The report has not been shy to say that the United States is the world's leading manufacturer of firearms and the major source of firearms in the region. American gun control laws, it says, pose no or few obstacles to the illicit gun trade affecting the Caribbean.

Crime as a development problem

Probably the biggest breakthrough of the World Bank/UN Report is its recognition that crime is a development problem. The Bank had already said that crime hurts Caribbean economies, so that part is not new.

Now, the Bank is saying that crime and violence are development issues. The very title of the study is, Crime, Violence, and Development.

This shift in thinking is important in a number of ways. While encouraging further reforms of criminal justice systems, the Report says that countries have been relying too much on laws and institutions to combat crime. Now, it goes beyond this to say that more must be done to upgrade slums and to promote youth development because youths are the greatest perpetrators and victims of crime and violence.

The Report, therefore, recommends more support for early childhood education and mentoring, keeping young people in secondary schools longer, and extending the hours of secondary schools while broadening the (extracurricular) activities that can interest young people. It also recommends better ways to reintegrate deportees into societies.

Across the region young men, with low socio-economic status, low levels of education, poor job prospects, and who have witnessed violence at close range, are most susceptible to becoming perpetrators (and victims). This points, not to poverty as such, but to the vulnerable, at-risk population, that does not take enough advantage of opportunities or face the most challenges in accessing

Opportunities because of family upbringing, anger, frustration, or their lack of hope.

But more than this, the Report recognises that the very concept of development must be reviewed. It even commended Jamaica and the Dominican Republic for pursuing a new kind of development planning that designs environments to encourage desirable behaviour and discourage anti-social behaviour (community development with housing, schools, clinics, parks, sports facilities, job training).

Furthermore, it calls upon the drug consumer countries to do more to contain their demand and help receiving countries to reintegrate deportees and develo economies that do not need to rely on drug profits.

Crime and Caribbean Economies

The Report said that if Jamaica and Haiti could bring their crime rates down to that of Costa Rica, their economies could grow by another five per cent to six per cent. It really is saying that the Jamaican economy, which grew by 2.5 per cent last year, has the strength to achieve eight per cent to nine per cent growth, which would make it one of the top performers in the world.

We are used to thinking of Jamaicas economy as weak. This is not the first time that the Bank has said that Jamaicas economy could grow by an additional four per cent or more if crime was contained. It recognises

that resources have to be redeployed to social and crime fighting issues.

But it also confesses that the problem of crime goes beyond national and international boundaries. Hopefully, the World Bank and UN will help to construct programmes for social and economic development with other international partners. Caribbean countries have been saying many of these things over the years.

The World Bank/UN Report does not seem to hold out much hope that gun manufacturing countries will pursue stricter gun control policies (considering the huge profits for the arms manufacturers) and so advises that Caribbean countries do more to register, track and monitor the trafficking of guns through ports. To do all of this, the

Report believes that donors and OECD countries must work with Caribbean countries.

In about 1990, Michael Manley determined that the greatest threat facing the regions small and vulnerable democracies was international drug trafficking. He proposed to the United States and United Nations that some kind of international force be established (along the lines of UN peacekeeping forces) specifically to help vulnerable countries to fight drug trafficking.

At around the same time, A.N.R. Robinson of Trinidad and Tobago proposed an International Criminal Court for which drug trafficking and international crimes would be addressed. A decade and a half later, the World Bank and the UN are just beginning to catch up to the real threat of drug trafficking, but better late than never.

Robert Buddan lectures in the Department of Government, Mona, UWI.

Email: Robert.Buddan@uwimona.edu.jm.