Above: Courtney Brown, Director of Crime Prevention and Community Safety in the Ministry of National Security

By the Caribbean Journal staff

As Jamaica continues to struggle with a high rate of violent crime, the government says it will be placing an “increased focus” on crime prevention next year.

The Ministry of National Security says it has recognized that “additional attention” must be paid to emphasize crime prevention.

“Crime control has been our traditional approach and has produced mixed results over the years,” said Courtney Brown, director of crime prevention in the Ministry of National Security. “In the most recent times there has been a reduction in the national homicide rate from 62 per 100, 000 in 2009 to 40 per 100,000 at the end of 2012. This was achieved primary, but not solely, through enhanced law enforcement approaches.”

Part of that effort, he said, will involve increased emphasis on engaging communities, through strategies like community policing, alternative dispute resolution and victim support, among other measures.

“These strategies are being supported by a technical working group of key Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs); namely Ministry of Education, Labour and Social Security, Youth and Culture, Health and Justice,” he said.

But Brown cautioned that crime prevention is not a quick process; it is something that comes over the “medium to long-term period.”

“More specifically, we expect a reduction in serious crimes and the number of at-risk youth contributing to crime, an improvement in educational attainment and the employability of the target group, also in the physical infrastructure and governance of target communities and of course an overall Government of Jamaica service delivery to these underserved communities,” he said.