CHILDREN in some of Jamaica's toughest neighbourhoods begin training for their lives of crime from as early as age three when they are first taught to smoke marijuana, drink alcohol and use a gun, according to a senior investigator with the intelligence arm of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF), who has worked in law enforcement for more than two decades.

"The child criminals I have encountered during my 25-plus years in the JCF have lost their soul. They have no emotions. They have no fear. They have no feelings. They do not know how to reason. They only know how to commit criminal acts. It is the only thing they know to do well." said the investigator, who did not wish to be named.

"At three years old, some are already acquainted with ganja smoking, alcohol consumption and how to even handle the gun... they already know how to correctly hold a gun, and also know where the guns were hidden." the police veteran said.
Sunday Observer investigations reveal that older siblings, fathers, family friends and 'elders' in some inner-city communities were responsible for this early criminal initiation.

The investigator, who has worked the streets of some of the city's most violent police divisions, told the Sunday Observer that a large percentage of the nation's youths knew nothing else but crime, abuse and violence. His remarks were backed up by police statistics, and supported by Dr Henley Morgan, who chairs an inner-city project.

"By the time a child reaches six or seven, his personality and make-up is a done deal. He is already predisposed to crime and violence. Shaped from in the womb. And you have to live it and see it to believe it," said Morgan, chairman of Caribbean Applied Technology in Trench Town.

According to Morgan, in some communities, based on empirical data, children were predisposed to crime and violence and, "by the time the child is 13 years, they would have completed the ritual of the criminal initiation. The process is done between age six and 13 years."

According to the police investigator, the longevity of the criminal legacy now has older children passing on their knowledge to younger siblings, as well as to their friends.

According to law enforcement officials and at least one social worker interviewed by the Sunday Observer, some youngsters had more than 10 years' experience in the ways of crime, although they were still under 15 years old. Even more frightening, the officials say, was the fact that these young criminals were showing the same appetite for murder and mayhem as their older relatives and other community members before them.

It is this criminal legacy that is now paralysing the state's crime-fighting and justice apparatus, sending Government and Opposition into uncharacteristic huddles of consensus ranging from talks at Vale Royal to anti-crime plans.

But it will take a lot more than talks and plans to reverse the current police statistics documenting the danger to generations of Jamaicans.

Statistics from the police showed, for example, that in 2006, 82 youngsters between the ages of 12 and 15 years were arrested for all categories of major crimes in that year - including murders - while 98 in this same age group were arrested in 2005.

In 2005, a total of 826 youngsters between the ages of 12 and 20 years were arrested for all categories of major crimes.
The 'ripe' criminal age group, according to the police, is 18-25 years but according to the investigator, while that age group was still the police's biggest headache, they were being replaced by 12-13 year-olds.

Safe Schools Ambassador Lawman Lynch, who is also a youth and community development consultant, said the current developing criminal minds have to be rescued.

"The upcoming generation can only be rescued through education, massive social intervention (which is a proactive solution) and our security forces going head-to-head with these criminals," he told Sunday Observer by electronic mail.

Lynch, who is also from an inner-city community and is president of the KSA Action Forum Youth Organisation, believes that social intervention must factor in parenting.

"Social intervention programmes will also need to heavily focus on parenting, as after islandwide consultations with hundreds of young people, it was proven that there is dire need for good parents," he said. "Unfortunately, our parents need to learn how to be parents."

Lynch, who is also a recipient of the Prime Minister's Youth Award, said the need for behaviour modification is critical.

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