The problem of crime is as old as the place we know as Jamaica. Just recently I heard a young politician, in a television interview, offering some constructive ideas about treating crime. It came at a time when Prime Minister Andrew Holness raised the issue of the failure of crime plans and the time for a national security plan for Jamaica. If you do not research and study crime, developing our own knowledge base about crime in Jamaica, we will never arrest the monster.

We did not get here, in terms of the terrible crime situation, suddenly. The history of crime is grounded in the history of the increasing poverty and lack of opportunities — then land and education — for the newly freed slaves. The history of crime among the ex-slaves began after Emancipation and continued to grow like the underbelly of the volcano that erupts from time to time. In the case of Jamaica, history shows that there is that continuous relationship between poverty and crime in spite of the loud denial about his relationship. By the 1850s, praedial larceny became the general crime and, of course, later matters concerning vagrancy laws and other forms of injustices.

The main response to this growing criminality in Jamaica was, firstly, the developing of extremely harsh laws, the building of massive prisons, and the importation of a paramilitary occupying force from Northern Ireland for colonial police force for Jamaica. In the late 19th century and the early 20th century voices of Dr T E S Scholes and Dr Robert Love, among others, argued that the major problems besetting black people were land deprivation and lacking of any substantial educational system to transform the ex-slaves into meaningful individuals and citizens. The issue of the lack of significant and consequential education is most responsible for much of the disorders, crime, and underdevelopment in Jamaica. The issue of education and training, especially military and modern vocational education, is most important component of any crime or security plan for Jamaica.

By the 1850s there was a growing concern about this new surge of crimes among the newly freed slaves. The plantations had housing, some medical services, food, and clothing, though limited; freedom for many slaves meant away from the plantation, the very definition of the word. But freedom was not free; there were little or no opportunities outside of the plantations, so with this growing youth population, especially those born in the immediate post-slavery era a different mindset developed.

The members of the white planter class were also the district constables, military volunteers, and also the magistrates — they controlled the court/legal system in the parishes. In some cases crime was the only alternative to survival; in other words, the way in which the society was organised was the prime component in generating criminals. People would be arrested for reaping crops they grow when driven off land they leased from the planters. The laws, police, and prison system were not created to treat crime but to punish the criminals — from whipping to extremely wicked laws. Education and laws were primarily created for social control as opposed to social transformation.

The Church was trusted with the role of proving education to the ex-slaves. It was made clear that education was for social control and also for the Christianisation of the black masses. The Church was successful in keeping the people docile, without fighting spirit — giving them, as Leonard P Howell said, the wrong doctrine about life and survival. It was self-serving in using the system to spread Christianity on behalf of the British to civilise the “brutes”, but failed to assist the newly freed slaves on a path of Emancipation.

The decade of the 1860s was an important juncture of history in the post-slavery era. It is a reflection of the brutal setting of post-slavery Jamaica. It was the age of the post-slavery generation in action, in terms of resistance. There was activism against the oppressive social, political, and economic setting across the territory, with a focus in the parish of St Thomas. The colonial society was not concerned with the development of the masses, the major concern was for the white minority to control power at the expense of the continued underdevelopment of the ex-slave population. This was deliberate. The Underhill letters were some serious warnings about the problems in the colony: The letter missionary noted that the jails were overcrowded with uneducated youth, the colonial authority was charged for keeping the masses of Jamaican ignorant — this contributed to the rise of crime. In the case of the peasants from St Ann that petitioned The Queen for support and land, they were told to go back to the plantation and work harder. The only response by the planters and the colonial government to the crises was to developed tighter and more brutal laws, increasing the miseries of the ex-slave population.

Crime in Jamaica, then and now, is a product of the way in which the Jamaican society was and remains organised. There is this behaviour of dependency that we developed from the system of education from the 1830s Negro Education Act to the present thinking in education and system of school. The nature of education trained us to be dependent on others for ideas to solve our problems. On the subject of crime, very few scholars explore this area; probably the major work on crime in Jamaica (contemporary) was conducted by Professor Anthony Harriott. Our crime fighters go abroad for studies and training and our crime plans, like other things, are grounded in foreign perceptions — theories and general laws about other people’s experience that we expect to use to solve our problems. For us to make Jamaica great, we must stop talking about what a great place we have and the legends and make the place great.

When I heard this new national security plan for Jamaica, I shivered and muttered, back to the post-1865 order. I think our main problem is we do not understand the nature of crime in Jamaica, because if we did, the results would be the evidence. We must begin to develop a 21st century knowledge base for Jamaica — in history, education, crime, science, and research and development.

There will be major challenges in today’s world, for example, how can this market-led economic approach be tempered in a way to reduce the widening inequality gap? It is very clear that general body of “unattached youth” that emerged in the 1850s had its replication and growth over the years and is treated with more prison and more laws. Both the colonial Government and the post-1962 Government have spent far more money in fighting than preventing crime through real education, training, and a national body of social workers across the country. There is a need for responsible people and institutions in Jamaica to play an important role in the political discussions on matters such as crime and corruption — the political parties ought not to be allowed to be the only voices on these matters.

If we are really the great people we say we are, then let that greatness manifest in newness, the dominant role from the community and the new voices of men and women of conscience prominent in policymaking, outside of the political parties where new and great ideas will bloom.

Louis E A Moyston, PhD, is a university lecturer. Send comments to the Observer or thearchives01@yahoo.com.