A combination of political will, renewal of urban space and an acknowledgement of the influence of criminal elements on the youth. This was the prescription given this week as part of the solution to the problem of crime and violence in Jamaica.

The view was put forward at the launch of a joint report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and the Latin America and the Caribbean Region of the World Bank at the University of the West Indies on Wednesday night.

other countries

Dr. Andrew Morrison, economist at the World Bank and one of the authors of the study, said the document seeks to examine approaches by other countries in the region and then deposit detailed ideas for fighting crime in the Caribbean.

"This report estimates that if Caribbean countries cut their homicide rates by a third, their GDP growth rates would double. That means that there would be more money to fund all kinds of programmes and violence is getting in the way of that," Dr. Morrison said.

He also listed citizen security approaches, such as urban redesign, as a way of reducing crime and violence.

"What that means is to concentrate resources in specific communities to transform them," he said. "For example, crime prevention through urban redesign, street lighting, getting rid of zinc fencing at the same time as you are investing in the youth, at the same time as you are doing hot spot policing to deal with serious problems of violent crime. But it is doing (it) in a concentrated space, in a concentrated way so that you can change communities."

This strategy, according to Dr. Morrison, has worked in Colombia, Brazil and the Dominican Republic.

In the approach to youth crime, Allan Bernard, an activist in the Montego Bay community of Flankers, said the state needs to realise that there are organised and sophisticated elements in these communities which have substantial influence on youth.