Proper Parenting of Boys a Solution to Crime

Commanding Officer for the St. James Police Division, Superintendent Steve McGregor, has said that the solution to Jamaica’s troubling crime situation resides in the proper rearing and parenting of the youth, especially boys.
“I am calling on all parents and teachers today to take up the boys as special projects. Give them chores, give them tasks, give them things to do from an early age so that they can grow up to be loving and responsible young men. I am convinced that the solution to our crime problems in Jamaica rests in how we groom the youngsters and how they are being brought up,” Superintendent McGregor said.
He was addressing participants in a Jamaica Information Service (JIS)/Goodwill Past Students Association community forum, which was held recently at the Goodwill All-age School in St. James.
Superintendent McGregor urged parents and guardians alike to seek to curb the youngsters from an early age, as when they became older it would be difficult to bring about positive behavioural change.
“When we analyzed the 188 murders that were recorded in St. James last year, we found out that over 65 per cent of those killed were young people … and over 50 per cent of the alleged killers were also young people. This was telling us that it was young people who were killing young people. We believe that if something was done from those early years, we probably could have succeeded in curbing a lot of these youngsters who were committing such serious crimes. I am therefore calling on all you parents and caregivers to pay a lot of attention to your youngsters, especially the boys,” the Police Superintendent stressed.
Commending the dance performance of a group of youngsters at the function, Superintendent McGregor said: “I felt so good when I saw these youngsters performing some cultural dances instead of some of those dances that many of our young people are indulging in, as we think that Jamaica’s culture is only the new dance and music now being played. We have so much better cultural dances that teach us better traits that our youths could adopt.”
Other presentations were made by representatives of the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Education.