A Case Study on Crime

Just in case any Jamaican is scratching their head wondering where much of our crime comes from, it's not only from a poor economy and significant disparity.

As I have noted in prior posts, the vast majority of murders come from interpersonal disputes that grown out of proportion into full-scale warring and killing.

In the case of these two communities, Southside and Tel-Aviv, the killings of the day can be traced back to an event that split the gang at the time in two:

"He was walking past Rosemary Lane and Barry Street corner, when some of the Max man seh, blood fire fe dem pants deh, only b...boy where dem pants deh," said Tallman.

Some 1500 people have been killed since that remark was made in ongoing fighting between these communities.

In short, it has nothing to do with the economic situation.

Instead, it all has come down to a lack of communication and conflict resolution skills.

While this is sad, it also gives me some hope, because these are teachable skills. What i don't know is who is attempting to teach them, and how.

I am aware of the work going on in schools -- PALS (Peace and Love in Schools) -- but I don't now enough about what is being done for adults. I know there are efforts underway, and now I can understand their importance after reading this article.