'Becoming a criminal is a choice' Sandra Currie, Jamaica Observer Newspaper, Wednesday, August 26, 2020

 http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/opinion/becoming-a-criminal-is-a-choice_201100?profile=1096

Every single study I have read, suggests that poverty plays a role in crime. Therefore, this article is a bit simplistic. To say: so you are poor, so what? To say, persons 'choose' crime implies that all people have to do is stop choosing to be criminals and our crime problem will be solved. The issue is far more complicated than that. Several factors cause crime in a society. In Jamaica, our violent crime is mostly gang based so in the interest of space, I will limit my discussion to violent gang based crime in Jamaica. Our crime is mostly caused by poverty, parental neglect and child abuse. Politics played a role in the past. Very rarely do gang members come from upper class, well to do areas. As Ms. Currie must know, just having CXC passes are not enough when you come from certain poor high crime areas. Poverty and the lack of opportunities that goes with it, does frustrate our youth and produces a lot of angry young men. The parental neglect and parental abuse masquerading as 'discipline' teaches children that violence is the way to assert your dominance and the way to get others to do what you want. Young men in particular are more prone to violence because of cultural conditioning e.g. peer pressure and hormonal reasons. Secondly, the 'us/them' syndrome where the 'us' (poor, often black) group feels taken advantage of by the 'them' (richer, sometimes fair skinned or chinese) creates an undercurrent of resentment in gang communities. When you combine this with the high rate of gang area unemployment and the idleness that causes, you have a crime problem. When young men feel they are failing, when they see the gangsters have nuff cyar an nuff gyal and they have none, they suffer from low self-esteem. Wittingly or unwittingly, we have created a society where money trumps other values. Everything is about money. If you are a bruk, barefoot but honest and decent young man, no criss gyal a go want yu. To compensate, young men often join gangs. When they see the police and politicians in league with the gangs, it normalises gangs. A lot of dancehall so-called music also promotes and glorifies violence and the importance of 'Respect'. Some dancehall artists are tied to gangs. Gangsters often pose on social media with their weapons in a desperate attempt to get respect. Some go even further and film killings - to get respect. When young men from poor areas see gangs filling in for the government: providing justice, free electrical connections, loans, aid to the poor and sick, area entertainment and the other things that our government has withdrawn from, it normalises gangs. So yes, crime is a choice for those who choose gang life but to leave it at that is unfinished business. True, a few exceptional, highly motivated people born in a poor gang/garrison community may choose to go to college and become a doctor and the talented ones may become athletes or singers. However, what about the rest of us? Most of us are not exceptional or particularly talented in anything. I know I am not. I am of below average intelligence, can't sing and have no athletic talent. If I had been born in a gang area, I would have been a gangster or self-medicated with alcohol or drugs like many young men do to compensate.

It is in our self-interest to create a society of opportunity so that more of our young men eschew a life of crime. However, our current focus is on killing them but the problem is that we cannot kill them fast enough. By all means, implement the death penalty - it's already on the books. However, we need to combine killing our young men who have turned to crime with creating opportunities for those who have yet to do so. That is a choice too.

Raymond D. Grant