MAYBE it’s just a perception, but given their relatively small number in a national population of just under 2.7 million, violent crimes by gays against gays in Jamaica does seem disproportionately high.

And Jamaicans, most of whom are in any case extremely hostile to homosexual practice, have long had the impression that murders and other violent incidents in the gay community — often triggered by jealous rage — are especially heinous and gory.

Hence the observation in yesterday’s Sunday Observer article, ‘Spilling homosexual blood’, that “gay deaths are replete with scenes in which the knife — the apparent weapon of choice — is plunged over and over into the body of the victim…”

The unfortunate truth, though, is that violence has long been a popular dispute resolution method in this country. So homosexual Jamaicans would hardly be any different, in that respect.

In the absence of figures, this newspaper can’t speak to statistical proportions, but violence spawned by jealousy in heterosexual relationships is also a massive problem. We grow weary of reports of men killing or maiming their female partners whom they suspect of infidelity. Often the tragic episode is capped by suicide.

Of the 1,618 murders said by the Economic & Social Survey Jamaica to have occurred in 2008, a total of 61 were categorically listed as having been “domestic-related”. Many of those would have been the result of romance gone wrong.

The bottom line is that whether they be ‘gay’ or ‘straight’, people suffering from severe emotional trauma as a result of failed or flawed relationships need to find ways to resolve their issues without resorting to violence.

The unfortunate Jamaican reality is that the home — the cradle — where we should all expect to not just learn but assimilate right from wrong at infancy, is all too often completely dysfunctional and useless in that regard. So that attitudinal ills in a particular family group are often multiplied with the passage of time and the maturing of new adults.

Professional, amateur and volunteer counsellors, including those quoted in the Sunday Observer article, already play a considerable, yet underrated role in seeking to defuse domestic tension and reduce violence.

This newspaper is also aware that public and private/voluntary organisations operating at the community level do play a very positive role. Nor can we forget the Church. Conventional religious teaching invariably emphasises the need for love, caring, and forgiveness in human relationships. So that Sunday School becomes priceless for those children lacking proper guidance at home.

But it’s our under-resourced school system and our already overworked and underpaid teachers whom, it seems to us, we must depend on to drive the acceptance of peace as a way of life. Many schools, supported by various organisations, already actively promote programmes for peace and dispute resolution. In the latter regard, as we have done in this space previously, we hail the work of groups like the Peace And Love in Society (PALS), Violence Prevention Alliance (VPA), Dispute Resolution Foundation, and Peace Management Initiative (PMI).

But it seems to us that there is clear need — even while taking into account the resource constraints — for an all-embracing school curriculum-based drive, starting with early childhood through primary to high school, to nurture and cultivate peaceful and progressive attitudes. There would be a cost, but the benefits over the long term would be incalculable.