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JCF Tackling Crime through Social Intervention Programmes

June 14, 2007

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The Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) has diversified its policing strategies and is using social intervention as a way to tackle anti-social behaviour and discourage crime among young people in vulnerable communities.
Speaking in the 2007/08 Sectoral Debate in the House of Representatives yesterday (June 13), Dr. Phillips said the strategy was to help the youth realize that “crime does not pay,” and includes interventions such as the Safe Schools programme, which goes beyond hardcore policing to include the direct engagement of citizens, parents and civil society.
Dr. Phillips noted that the JCF, which is proceeding towards modernization, must consider a departure from hardcore policing and law enforcement, and “directly address the conditions of life, attitudes and behavioural patterns of persons in vulnerable communities that are at risk from criminal behaviour.”
According to Dr. Phillips, “it is apparent that if we are to reduce the levels of violent crime and create an environment of law-abiding behaviour, we need to address general attitudes in relation to dispute resolution to ensure that we have less violence, we need to have respect among family members and community members generally, and we need most of all, to have our young men and women understand that a life of crime and violence will for the most part, provide them a one way express lane to the cemetery.”
“This will require that we depart from our original emphasis of law enforcement as the only response to anti-social behaviour,” Dr Phillips stressed.

Last Updated: June 14, 2007

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