Rethinking the approach to crime and development

Claude Robinson

Sunday, February 12, 2012

UNSURPRISINGLY, a new United Nations report released last week identified crime as a major choke hold on the economy.

Crime, particularly violent crime, tends to have a negative impact on vulnerable economies such as those of the Caribbean. It erodes confidence in the future development of countries, reduces the competitiveness of existing industries and services by, for example, imposing burdensome security costs, and may negatively alter the investment climate. Capital may take flight.

The report documents well known, if somewhat unpleasant, facts: Jamaica has the highest homicide rate in the Caribbean and the third-highest murder rate worldwide in recent years, with about 60 murders per 100,000 inhabitants. Only El Salvador and Honduras have higher rates, with 66 and 82.1 murders respectively per 100,000 people. Also, Jamaica has the highest number of youth convicted of crime in the region.

Direct cost of crime was US$529 million (J$46.5 billion) in 2005; missed tourism earnings was just over US$91 million. These, and other costs, amounted to as much as 3.21 per cent of Jamaica's gross domestic product (GDP).

Jamaica was not alone. "Overall, youth crime is costing Caricom countries between 2.8 and four per cent of GDP," stated the report, as it noted that the number of criminal gangs operating throughout the region is on the rise. Over the past 12 years, gang-related homicide has been increasing in all territories studied, with the exception of Barbados and Suriname.

Latin America and the Caribbean, home to 8.5 per cent of the world population, accounted for 27 per cent of the world's homicides.

The human and material cost of crime in the region is catalogued in the UNDP Caribbean Human Development Report 2012, launched in Port-of-Spain, capital of Trinidad and Tobago, last Wednesday. It was the first time that the UN Development Programme (UNDP) focused its human development lens on the Caribbean.

The report, which draws on the expertise and experience of academics, researchers and policy makers across the region, includes findings from a large-scale survey among 11,555 citizens in Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, Saint Lucia, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago, the seven countries in the study.

A key message of the report is that Caribbean countries need to focus on a model of security based on the human development approach, whereby citizen security is paramount, rather than on the traditional state security model, whereby the protection of the state is the chief aim.

The authors reject the view that there is a contradiction between crime prevention strategies on the one hand and repression and coercion on the other.

"In a truly democratic society, broad-based social inclusion and swift criminal justice — or "prevention" and "coercion" — serve to reinforce and complement each other. This is one of the most important lessons to be taken from this report — and not only for the Caribbean but for all of Latin America as well."

Accordingly, the authors say that Caribbean countries "need to complete the shift from an approach to security that is centrally concerned with regime protection to the full adoption of a citizen security approach that is consistently pursued in the context of human development".

Citizen security is centred on a profound changing of the relationship between the state and the citizenry by making institutions more responsive and accountable to the people they serve.

"Such a fundamental change entails greater social integration, which may be brought about by seeking to resolve the problems of social exclusion and marginalisation among large sections of the populations — including state security practices that do not respect rights and unnecessarily stigmatise and criminalise — and by a greater emphasis on human development. These ideas may be simple, but they are hugely significant in the everyday lives of the people of the region".

The report notes that "Caribbean countries have a long history of inequality and discrimination. The inequality includes inequalities of social power that find expression in the unbalanced distribution of state protection and the inequitable treatment of rights and freedoms".

This historical pattern still affects how resources of the state are distributed, with the most vulnerable consistently getting less.

UNDP administrator Helen Clark, speaking at the launch, said: "We need to follow approaches that are centred on citizen security and address the causes of this recent increase in violent crime, including social, economic, and political exclusion."

The report recommended that Caribbean governments implement youth crime prevention through education, as well as provide employment opportunities that target the marginalised urban poor. Of course, this recommendation comes with a price tag.

Parlous state of public finances

Against that background, we take note of remarks Wednesday at a Jamaica House media briefing by Finance Minister Dr Peter Phillips that the fiscal programme the Portia Simpson Miller Administration inherited from the previous Government went disastrously off track in the second quarter of the fiscal year.

"As a consequence, there is now a fiscal gap of some J$10 billion for the current fiscal year, and the Cabinet has agreed to measures and adjustments which will be reflected in the supplementary Budget that I will be tabling in Parliament later this month."

At least two things are at issue: where the axe will fall; and secondly, what will be the development strategy to guide decisions about spending cuts and economic management as the new administration tries to get the economy back on track.

The minister gave no details at the briefing except to say that the majority of the expenditure cuts will take place on the capital side of the Budget. What projects will be affected? What will inform the choices?

While telling the country that he has to deal with a $10-billion fiscal gap, Dr Phillips announced that the Government had identified at least $4 billion to jump-start the People's National Party's much-touted Jamaica Emergency Employment Programme (JEEP). He offered no details about where the money will come from except that there will be "reorientation of expenditure".

In Opposition, the PNP said that some 25 per cent of the US$400 million the JDIP (Jamaica Development Infrastructure Programme) loan from China would be used to fuel the JEEP.

But on taking office they discovered that all but US$1.8 million had already been spent or committed. We still do not know how much of the "over-commitments" (under the JDIP), are at the point where they can be terminated without onerous financial penalties.

Accordingly, the country will need further and better particulars about the source of funding for JEEP, and the public will also need to be convinced that the 'alternative' JEEP projects offer better value for taxpayers. It cannot be merely a matter of fulfilling a campaign promise or changing one contractor for another.

Dr Phillips will be held to his pledge of a more transparent, open and accountable style of governance.

Based on former Prime Minister Andrew Holness's pre-election promise of "bitter medicine" in 2012 as the country struggles to live within its means and now Dr Phillips's own promise that "there will be cuts and they will be substantial", the country does not expect smooth sailing ahead.

But within the context of the UNDP Caribbean Human Development Report 2012, we expect fairness and equity. And whether in the JEEP or any other vehicle, we expect that jobs and opportunities, especially for youth, will be front and centre of efforts to get the economy back on track.

kcr@cwjamaica.com

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Rethinking the approach to crime and development