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I have spent more than 30 years in Diaspora engagement, learning, collaborating, starting, and leading several for-profit businesses and non-profit organizations. The one thing that is a common thread among everyone who moves from Jamaica to the Diaspora is the high cognizance of high crime in their home country. It is no wonder the US government recently issued a travel advisory cautioning its citizens against traveling to Jamaica. Of the hundreds of seminars, conferences, or events I have attended, whenever there is an opportunity for a Diasporan to ask questions, the most common, confrontational, high-intensity, answerless questions have been centered around crime in Jamaica. It makes you wonder if the crime situation will ever improve in the place we call home.
It took me many years of interactions, but I could never understand concepts and terminologies and effective ways of determining how to help my country directly on the crime front. Therefore, I decided to pursue studies in criminal justice (MSc) and criminology (Ph.D.) to be a part of the discussion, exploring and understanding how I can be of more service to my country.
With this article, I’ve had a chance to delve into areas I would not have understood four years ago. So I felt pretty at home researching data to put this article together.
Jamaicans at home and in the Diaspora understand that crime is a big white elephant on the island of Jamaica. Every…
