Jamaica is reporting a decline in the number of criminal gangs in the country as well as a reduction in crime over the last six months.
National Security Minister Dr Horace Chang, speaking during the Sectoral Debate in Parliament, said also that teenagers involved in the illegal lottery scamming business were having access to millions of dollars leading to violent behaviour.
Chang told legislators that at the start of the year there were 244 active gangs, but that number has declined to 106.
He said at present there are before the courts, members of five gangs and 64 other gangs are being investigated.
“The police’s assessment indicates that the number of gangs across the country has been considerably reduced and they are now smaller and less organised. Several large gangs have been disrupted, a number of gang trials are pending and the police have picked up several contract killing syndicates,” he said.
Chang said that while murders remain unacceptably high, there has also been success in reducing major crimes.
He said for the six-month period, November 2023 to April 2024, Jamaica recorded a 24 per cent decline in murders when compared with the preceding six-month period and that murder is trending on a 15 per cent decline this year.
“If we had used the full force of the legislation, the state of public emergency, over the last two years while we were building the force to where it is today, we would have saved hundreds of lives.
“We said from day one that if we strengthen the police force, provide the supporting legislation and give the police the tools to fight the crime, as we carry out the social investment, then these efforts would converge, where we begin to get sustainable reductions in criminal violence,” he added.
During his contribution Chang lamented the fact that teenagers, who are involved in lottery scamming, now have access to millions of dollars and are ill equipped to deal with their sudden wealth.
“Some of the violence we are seeing is coming from the fact that advance-fee fraud (lottery scamming) is putting in the hands of children, 14- to 17-year-old boys, a power that they cannot handle.
“When you give a 15-year-old millions of dollars and they can buy a gun, buy cars for everybody; driving a Mark X; buy his mother, his sister, his aunties, friends high-end cars, you have given him a power that he doesn’t have the mental capacity to even understand, so killing becomes a part of life,” Chang told legislators.
He said that part of the solution to the problem is to find where these young people are and correct the problem at an early age. He noted that the majority of these young people are from volatile communities and who are in need of psychosocial intervention.
Chang said the Needs Assessment for Case Management and Psychosocial Services Report, in 2021, and again in 2024, indicate a great need for increased psychosocial services within the areas surveyed.
The research indicates that in the areas surveyed there is a demand to serve about 10,000 young citizens in need of psychosocial services, but the capacity of the Ministry of Health is about 3,000.
“The only way we can redirect individuals is to start by reaching out to them in a professional way with the required psychosocial services…We are doing some work, and while we are not everywhere yet we intend to get to most of those communities.”
