Crime and Violence in Jamaica Essay

Jamaica is a small third world country in the Caribbean with a population of approximately 2, 709, 300 people. The country faces numerous a(prenominal) problems yearly strikely the worst is the ever increasing crime rate. In October 2011 Jamaica was ranked third in a report of countries with the highest crime rates by the geneva Declaration on Armed Violence and Development . The country has interpreted a turn for the worst over the past few years. Our local anaesthetic television stations and newspapers be packed with daily stories of robberies, political disputes, sophisticate in its many forms, murders, kidnappings, rapes and more recently, scamming. There atomic number 18 many divisors which whitethorn contribute to crime and wildness in our country. There be factors much(prenominal) as inadequacy of jobs, lack of procreation, scantiness, maltreat or influence in homes, poor meetice system and im squ atomic number 18 upmly methods of dealing with conflict.A firsthand bestow factor to crime and violence in Jamaica is lack of jobs. Upon loss school it is extremely surd-fought for Jamaican youths to find jobs so many of them turn to crime to sustain themselves. umpteen green people who fracture to go far jobs, either be creator they were under qualified or there was just nowhere to accommodate them, turn to felonies such as robbery and drug sale ( specially hemp). When asked why they choose to rob and sell drugs, many persons response that they are just trying to reserve a living. There are similarly some situations in which students whose parents are out of jobs, sell drugs to make money for their tuition.Read more Crime essayA nonher simple contributing factor to crime and violence in our country is indigence. It is a well kn protest fact that many families in Jamaica are poor. In many of these families there is usually only a single parent, more of cardinal than not- a mother, and several clawren. In these situations t he parent is unable to aid for so many tiddlerren. We see families with five, s evening and sometimes even ten or more children appear on our local news programs postulation for assistance because their children cannot att abolish school or they cannot buy necessary items for them. Many of these families are not able to provide proper shelter or food for their children, and they cannot afford to send them to school. A child from such a home might turn out to be uneducated and whitethorn not be able to get a job in the future. Another child might decide that he cannot endure poverty any longer and may turn to crime to get contiguous cash or to try and make a living.Lack of education is another contributing factor to crime and violence in Jamaica. It is give tongue to that Education is the key to success, but sadly in this area, Jamaican youths are found lacking. Many young people have to drib out of school early for a variety of reasons. Some are unable to find school fees, bo oks and other necessary items to attend school, others are made to stay home to impression after an ill parent, many teenage girls get pregnant in school in addition and end up leaving school to try and find pasture to look after themselves and their child and others decide that school is just not works out and they choose to drop out. With a lack of education and proper training, and with the economy being the way it is, it allow be nearly unsurmountable to get a job. Being uneducated and unable to get a job many young people turn to crime to documentation themselves.The fourth contributing factor to crime and violence in Jamaica is abuse and/or influence in the home or a difficult home animateness. Some young people come from homes where they are mistreat or where there is violence. The customary saying The child is a harvest-tide of his environment proves to be true. Children who grow up in homes where there is violence or reprehensible activities are more likely to gr ow up doing the same thing. Sadly, some children in our country are even introduced into criminal demeanorstyle by their parents. For lawsuit there have been cases where teenage girls are led to prostitution by their mothers who are withal prostitutes.A child such as this testament grow up doing this and even if she decides to change, it will not be easy because it is what she is used to. Also if such a child wishes to change, other factors could alike prevent it. Factors such as poverty and lack of education. She will find it difficult to get on her feet and will ultimately be forced to continue the lifestyle. In such situations the parents are to be blamed for introducing the child to certain lifestyles but they can also indirectly cause their child to turn to a life of crime. An example of this would be a child who has a difficult home life where there is abuse or conflicts. As a result this child may have a low self-importance esteem andself worth and will be easily influe nced by his/her peers and may ultimately get entangled with things such as drugs. This same child may also have pent up anger and might be hostile with his peers.The influence of music is also a contributing factor to crime and violence in Jamaica. Dancehall music has become increasingly violent over the past few years and it is evident that it is influencing our people negatively, especially our young people. It is no secret that Jamaican teenagers look up to and result the behaviors of our Jamaican artists. Watching the incredibly violent videos of dancehall sensation Tommy Lee, it is hard to regard that he would allow the distribution of such violent songs and videos. His videos are so violent that they cannot be viewed on television and can only be found on the popular social network Youtube. His songs are also heavily edited to allow radio play.With so many young people looking up to him and singing his lyrics it is nearly impossible for them not to be influenced by his ne gative lyrics. And this has indeed been happening in our society. My own brother told me about a situation at his school where a teenager wrestled a fellow class mate to the ground and rubbed his shoe in his face. When taken to the office the boy give tongue to his classmate had said something he did not like and he referred to popular lyrics from Tommy Lee. Here we are seeing where music is contributing to violence in our country. Many of these popular songs also include lyrics about the use of marijuana and other drugs. When teenagers learn to these songs and hear the people they look up blabbering about marijuana , they will want to try it too. This leads to the use and distribution of the illegal tenderness in our country.Jamaicas poor justice system is also contributing to crime and violence in our society. Recently we are seeing where persons venture of committing crimes are held in prison and awaiting trial for months and sometimes years at a time. Others are never conv icted and are left to roam the streets and even to commit other crimes. It is understandable that persons will want justice for crimes attached against them and/or their loved ones. It must be very difficult to see someone who is responsible for murder walking around free tour someones parent, friend or siblings life has been cut short. The family or friend of this deceased person may eventually decide tostop hoping for the justice system to come through for them and may take matters into their own hands. When this person decides to end the life of the suspected liquidator some friend or family of this person may decide to conduct revenge on the disgruntled person, thus the chain of violence continues.It has also come to light that some members of the police force are involved in crimes in the country. If we cannot trust the persons who are supposed to protect us and look out for our best interests, then who can we trust? This also explains why many people decide to take their o wn revenge instead of waiting for the justice system to work. Even police officers who are not involved in crime will sometimes cause the public to doze off faith in the justice system by poor methods of investigation, inactivity and poor judgment. Many investigations and open cases are jeopardized by police officers who are either ignorant or just preoccupied of the procedures to take when gathering evidence. Considering all these problems with the justice system it is not hard to see why some citizens take matters into their own hands and exact their own revenge.The final contributing factor to crime and violence in Jamaica is ineffective methods of dealing with conflict. The citizens of our country seem to not know how to decent resolve problems. As soon as we feel threatened or offended, even about the smallest things, we resort to violence to get back at the person. We are not a people who will sit and talk through our problems, instead we find the quickest or easiest way to get revenge. Many people are injured and some even lose their lives over simple misunderstandings that could have been resolved without violence.Though our country has a high crime rate we must continue to hope for and work towards a day when there is no violence and crime plaguing our fiddling island. In order to achieve this goal we must first salute the root causes of crime and violence, these include factors such as lack of jobs, lack of education, poverty, influence of music, abuse and influence in the home, ineffective methods of conflict resultant and poor justice system.