Good going on crime
The majority of respondents to a recent Jamaica Observer/Bill Johnson poll believe that the Government has made progress in the fight against crime since it took office in 2016, even as they hold the view that crime is more of a problem in the country over the past three years.
At the same time, just under half of those surveyed fingered unemployment as the major contributor to crime, while 17 per cent of respondents blamed poverty.
Johnson’s team of researchers sought the views of 1,008 Jamaicans islandwide between January 21 and 24, 2019.
The poll, Johnson explained, has a sampling error of plus or minus three per cent.
The crime issue has plagued successive Governments over many years, and just before the Andrew Holness Administration declared the first state of emergency (SOE) in St James on January 18, 2018 shootings and murders were spiralling out of control.
According to Holness, at the height of the crime wave in St James, the average was 182 per 100,000, compared to the global average of six per 100,000.
The SOE, which was also implemented in two other areas — St Catherine North police division, and Kingston Western and St Andrew South police divisions — is generally accepted to have led to huge decreases in crime, particularly murder.
However, Holness, in an interview with this newspaper in December after the Opposition voted against a further extension of the SOEs, was not satisfied with the reduction, arguing that crime was still an emergency as the average in St James then was 55 per 100,000.
“This where there is a dispute — whether or not the present crime situation is an emergency. We say it is, they [Opposition] say it isn’t,” the prime minister argued at the time.
With the three states of emergency now expired, and crime still a major worry for many Jamaicans, the pollsters asked:
“Compared to three years ago at this time, do you think crime and violence is becoming more of a problem in Jamaica these days, or is it becoming less of a problem, or has the amount of crime and violence stayed about the same in the past three years?”
The responses were:
More of a Problem 62%
Less of a Problem 21%
About the Same 13%
Don’t Know 4%
When the pollsters asked: “Over the last three years or so, do you think the Government has made some progress in fighting crime, or do you think the Government has not made any progress in fighting crime over the past three years?” The responses were:
Made Progress 63%
Has Not Made Progress 29%
Don’t Know 8%
Asked what they thought is the biggest cause of crime in Jamaica these days, the respondents said:
Unemployment 48%
Poverty 17%
Scamming 6%
Corrupt police 6%
Lazy/idle youth 4%
Lack of education 4%
Bad-minded people 4%
Greed, red-eye 4%
Gang warfare 3%
Poor parenting 3%
Access to guns 2%
Tomorrow: What should the police and Government do to help reduce crime