‘Culture of violence’ can be avoided advises UWI Professor

THERE ARE SEVERAL things that must be looked at when talking about murders, where there is a period of stable plateau, a period which there is considerable oscillation, then a period of a steady increase, with less oscillation.

“I am very familiar with that pattern, as Trinidad and Jamaica exhibit it… and it is quite a different thing when you move from that second stage into that third stage, when you permit the third stage to become chronic… to consolidate itself,” said Professor Anthony Harriot, a Jamaican crime researcher and psychologist.

Speaking at the Methodist Church Hall on Wednesday, the Professor said in the third stage, the culture of peace begins to lose to a subculture of violence and it becomes very difficult to manage the problem.

Professor Harriot was in St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) as a guest speaker at a two-day national conversation on crime and violence organized by the SVG Christian Council, in collaboration with local churches and other stakeholders.

He said that a culture of violence can be avoided when a murder is committed if persons allow the police to do their job and the matter is settled in the court.

“…and that would keep your rate stable, but when a murder is committed and a young man takes it upon himself to retaliate with revenge, you get a different dynamic and then it goes from reply to reply and takes on a dynamic of its own, and the criminal justice system has great difficulty managing that kind of situation,” said the Professor.

He noted also that a culture of violence is fuelled when there is a hypersensitivity to disrespect and when a wide range of behaviours and offences are interpreted as quote, unquote, a “diss” and you reply to a “diss”, with violence.

“That’s your chronic third stage and you don’t want to get there; and you have to craft very careful interventions, because the data is suggesting that you (SVG) may be inching in that direction,” stated Professor Harriot, who said when he looks across the region, he sees countries with an emerging crime problem, but different countries have to have different responses.

He noted that simple public opinion matters, as it shapes policy, but at times, when crime reaches a chronic state, a cynicism sets in and persons believe that things will only get worse and the police also think they can’t solve the problem and people say things like “leave it to God”, while other persons interpret this to mean, God help those that help themselves, “and we don’t want it to get to that level”.

In relation to the criminal justice system in the region, the Professor believes the investment in policing has not been enough, as “right across the region, we have not done what is required. Investment in civic organisations that are to play an important role, we as citizens, allow them to die”.

He noted there are programs in the region in crime reduction and prevention, but they have not been evaluated, so we do not know if they are working.

“It is one thing to do poverty reduction…gender equality, these things are good, but it is quite another thing to do crime prevention and we should not confuse these things, we have to be very specifi c, so my first lesson is, programs must be targeted and they must have a degree of specificity,” said Professor Harriot, who added that we must target program efficiency and ensure that they do not waste money, as programs must be enhancing, not draining.

“If you are spending millions of dollars and the crime rate is going up, then it is not effective and not worthy of support. We have to invest in institutions that are responsible for controlling and reducing the problems,” stressed the Professor.

PROFESSOR ANTHONY HARRIOT