Philips urges UWI to develop criminology programmes
SECURITY Minister Peter Phillips yesterday urged the University of the West Indies (UWI) to spearhead the development of research programmes with a focus on crime and violence, which, he believes, could help in responding to the current crime wave affecting the country.
He also called on the university to structure a programme which “can facilitate the more effective implementation” of policies with regards to crime.
“There is no institution with a focus on criminology,” the minister said. “All the essential success in modernising our infrastructure in law enforcement would require, as a precondition in my view, that some programme of criminal justice studies be established by our universities in Jamaica.”
Dr Phillips was speaking at yesterday’s opening ceremony of the university’s Research Day 2003 which is being held under the theme ‘Criminal Violence in Jamaica — The State/Institutional Response’.
Such a programme, he said, would involve collaboration between local universities and a transformation of the role of the police academy.
He added: “Out of this collaborative effort, we have to move to provide the modern training in the most up-to-date forensic techniques in the adaptation of the pure sciences to the purposes of law enforcement.”
According to Phillips, crime and violence was the single greatest threat that the country has faced in its 40 years as an independent nation.
In fact, statistics show an upward trend in Jamaica’s annual average murder rate over the past three decades. The country has moved from an annual average of 269 murders during the decade of the 1970s to 487 during the decade of the 1980s, to 762 during the 1990s. Meanwhile, the average annual murder rate per 100,000 population jumped from 13 for the 1970s to 21 for the 1980s, and up to 31 for the 1990s.
“We started the decade of the 2000s with a murder rate of 34 per 100,000 population in 2000, which increased to 44 in 2001 and declined to 40 in 2002.
But Phillips believes this trend is directly linked to the illegal drug trade — an enterprise which, he said, has expanded with the aid of advance technology and transportation.
According to the minister, Jamaica’s geographic location makes it a primary transshipment point in the western Caribbean.
“Estimates are that 10 per cent of the drugs destined for North America and Europe pass through our borders each year,” he said. “When calculated at US$ street value, the transshipment trade through Jamaica is worth approximately US$3-3.6 billion.”
He added that these figures, taken as a percentage of the total gross domestic product (GDP) in 2001 [at current prices], represents between 40 and 50 per cent of the GDP.
At the same time, he said the value of the drug trade was estimated between 65 to 78 per cent of total legitimate trade — which in fact, valued more than all imports and exports in that year.
“[The drug trade] is big business, yet we still don’t know its impact on society and know very little about the flow of cash,” he stressed.
It is critical issues such are these that Phillips believes the academic community could explore.
“Given the scale of the problem and its potential significance for the purpose of national development for which this university (UWI) was formed, I think we need to re-orient our efforts and indeed teaching effort of the university,” he said.
“In effect, the long-term survival of the entire Caribbean, depends upon the ability of our states to understand and respond to this threat,” he added.
Yesterday’s opening day drew scores of visitors, particularly high school students, to the many booths mounted inside the university’s assembly hall and showcasing information on various research work being carried out on the campus.