The National Commission for Violence Prevention is now developing a 10-year evidence-based National Action Plan, with recommendations for legislative changes and institutional building.

The Plan will also include governance and best practices around a full national mobilisation to control and reduce violence as a feature of the society.

Making his contribution to the 2023-2024 Budget Debate in the House of Representatives on Thursday (March 16), Prime Minister Andrew Holness said the objective was to create a comprehensive all-of-society enterprise to engineer a social and cultural transformation of the Jamaican society and culture away from crime and violence. 

“We are seeking to bring about a cultural revolution in Jamaica. We expect the Commission to deliver its report in the coming fiscal year,” he informed, noting that preliminary work has been done in terms of resource allocation, planning, legislation and institutional arrangements necessary to execute the plan.

“Once we have this national plan, then we will be able to properly fund and deploy violence interrupters right across the country – psychologists and social workers – to be able to treat with the real problem of hate, aggression, low self-esteem, and  lack of respect. Those are the real issues, and no policeman can change that; no ‘more boots on the ground’ can change that. That requires almost a person-to-person conversation,” he argued. 

Holness said the Government is working to bring a sustainable solution to crime and violence.

Since its establishment in 2019, the National Commission for Violence Prevention has reviewed the violence-prevention initiatives of 22 ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs), six non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and other entities, and more than 45 violence-prevention programmes that have been implemented between 2015 and 2021.

The Commission has also analysed the 696 individual interventions implemented at the community level over the period 2015 to 2021 and facilitated collaboration, coordination, and data sharing between the various entities.

The Commission is mandated to conduct a continuing comprehensive review of all existing public and private violence-prevention programmes as well as the strategies of the Government. Its purpose is to identify gaps in the prevention and intervention services and to make recommendations with respect to violence prevention and intervention programmes.

Holness argued that crime and violence has become a public health epidemic and a threat to the proper functioning of the State. 

He said this means that the scale of crime and violence is so extensive that it is impacting public resources and the national economy; undermining the ability of the State to deliver services, which weakens public confidence in the State; and damaging the reputation and brand of the country in the global marketplace.

Holness pointed out that, from a public health perspective in Jamaica, physical assaults, that is, the intentional use of violence in domestic disputes, intimate partner affairs, disciplining children, business dealings, or in a criminal act, cause severe trauma and loss of life.

He said an important part of the response to crime and violence, in addition to the “more policing” approach, must be the engagement of critical social, emotional, and psychological services and support for the victims, perpetrators, loved ones and the witnesses.

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