Commissioner of Police Major General Antony Anderson is reported to have shrugged off the findings from a survey commissioned by a local media house in which the majority of respondents indicated that they lacked confidence in his leadership of the police.

He stated that, “…[S]o far, Jamaica has recorded 1,018 murders since the start of the year. In 2005 there were 1,674 murders, in 2017 the island recorded 1,647 murders”. The commissioner added, “Some 518 weapons were seized by the police as at the end of August.”

Last year January I saw a report which read, in part, “With recorded killings of 1,301 in 2020 a new report on Latin America and the Caribbean has revealed that Jamaica now has the region’s highest homicide rate at 46.5 per 100,000 people.”

Major Anderson’s claims of reduced murders, notwithstanding, the situation is still cause for concern. But why are we in this sorry situation?

Five years ago a video, filmed locally, went viral. It depicted a half-naked mother delivering a brutal public beating, using a cutlass, to her equally scantily clad daughter. Before completing my article ‘Beating the pain away’, I interviewed some mothers in the same socio-economic group as the beater, asking for their opinion on the video. They all supported the mother, adding that they knew of no other way to get children to “behave”. This, I think, is where our problem begins.

The complex issue of violent behaviour among children is talked about when it takes place in public spaces, like schools, but does not seem to be understood by parents and other adults. There was a time when punishment by a teacher would ensure a second dose when the child gets home. Today, any intervention by the teacher could guarantee that the teacher would get similar treatment from the parent. So teachers are now distancing themselves from such children.

But violent behaviour in a child — the precursor to adult violence — at any age needs to be taken seriously.

Violent behaviour in children and adults usually manifests itself in explosive temper tantrums, physical aggression, fighting, threats or attempts to hurt others, use of weapons, cruelty towards animals, fire setting, and vandalism.

It has now been established that a complex interaction or combination of factors lead to an increased risk of violence. These include previous aggressive or violent behaviour, being the victim of physical or sexual abuse, exposure to violence in the home or community, being the victim of bullying, genetic factors, drug and alcohol abuse, and stressful family socio-economic factors like poverty.

A few years ago I was doing some work for the Ministry of National Security, I asked for the files of 20 juveniles — randomly selected — who were placed on probation. A study of these cases — 10 boys and 10 girls — revealed, among other things, the following:

1) None attended church

2) None benefited from the presence of a father

3) All were born and raised in crowded tenement yards or in garrison areas

As a former Sunday school teacher I mention their non-attendance not because of opportunities for going to heaven but because the lessons generally taught at Sunday school involve love, tolerance, forgiveness, and the peaceful resolution of conflicts — features completely absent in the case histories of these youngsters.

It is many years now, but I still remember the shock registered around the world when Norwegian mass murderer Anders Breivik slaughtered 77 people. The first question that entered my mind was, “Did he grow up with a father?” My research revealed that he was fatherless.

Growing up without a father figure has a profound effect on boys that last into manhood. Democrat Senator Daniel Monyhan said, prophetically, in 1965, “…[T]here is one unmistakable lesson in American history: A community that allows a large number of young men to grow up in broken families dominated by women, never acquiring any stable relationship to male authority…that community asks for and gets chaos.” Forensic psychologist Shawn Johnson said, “The research is absolutely clear…the one human being most capable of curbing the anti-social aggression of a boy is his biological father.”

On CNN‘s list of the ’27 deadliest mass shootings in US history’, seven of those shootings were committed by young, under-30 males since 2005. Of the seven, only one — Virginia Tech shooter Seung-Hui Cho, who had been mentally unstable since childhood — was raised by his biological father.

If we know our history and the social science statistics surrounding fatherlessness, this should not surprise us. Some of the most famous killers in human history grew up in fatherless homes: Adolph Hitler, Saddam Hussein, Billy the Kid, Mark Lepine, and Charles Manson, to name a few.

Comparative psychology is the study of animals in order to find out about humans. The underlying assumption is that, to some degree, the laws of behaviour are the same for all species and, therefore, knowledge gained by studying rats, dogs, cats, and other animals can be generalised to humans. My first class in comparative psychology exposed me to Universe 25 or what my classmates and I called Rat City. Between 1968 and 1970 American ethologist John B Calhoun conducted a behavioural study of captive mice within an enclosure known as Universe 25. Several pairs of mice bred a population, which ultimately swelled to 2,200. Eventually they established social orders that created inside and outside factions, and soon mating ceased altogether.

The study confirmed Calhoun’s grim hypothesis based on earlier studies. In his theory he suggested that overpopulation spawns a breakdown in social functions. That, in turn, inevitably leads to extinction. These findings raised concern globally that Universe 25 could ultimately serve as a metaphor for the trajectory of the human race. Consequently, the Universe 25 project has been a subject of interest among architects, city planning councils, and government agencies around the world.

There are several aspects of the study which bear close similarities to human life. In the early stages the rats lived peacefully. As the numbers grew, however, they became increasingly aggressive until they started to eat each other. I will focus on one group of rats dubbed the alpha males — those of high status. Calhoun reports: “The alpha males, by contrast, became more pugnacious and aggressive, often launching into violence with no clear provocation or motive. At times these males would roam around and indiscriminately rape other mice, regardless of gender.”

I say all that to say the primary cause of violence in Jamaica has its genesis in the breakdown of family life, resulting in a significant amount of fatherlessness and people growing up in overcrowded conditions with mothers engaged in the futile pursuit of trying to father children. Interestingly, at the critical stage of the study (the 1960s) which revealed the increasingly aggressive nature of the rats because of overcrowding, garrisons were mushrooming in Jamaica. High-rise buildings were going up with just enough space to house as many voters as possible. Social amenities did not seem to be important.

The question I must now ask is this: When such conditions exist, leading to crime and violence, how does this become a police problem?

Imagine, if you will, the unlikely situation of fitness certificates for motor vehicles being available, for a fee, without the vehicle being examined for defects, likewise, driver’s licences being available, for a fee, without one having to do a test for driving competence. When crashes start to increase in number and severity, is it reasonable to condemn the National Works Agency?

In a society that is ripe for criminal violence, the most that can be reasonably expected of the police is to contain crime. This is being provided by motorised patrol, rapid response to calls, and retrospective investigation of crimes. These strategies have only limited effectiveness because critical institutions in our society have become defunct or dysfunctional.

The public seems to be dissatisfied with reactive responses. I suspect they are looking for the improved results that a proactive approach could provide. Reactive policing is not appropriate for most of our serious crimes. It cannot deal with consensual crimes such as drug dealing behind closed doors. It cannot deal with crimes such as extortion and loan sharking as the victims are too afraid to report the crimes. It cannot deal with sophisticated white-collar crimes or political corruption in which the losses associated with the crimes are so widely distributed that people do not notice that they are being victimised. And it cannot deal with traditional street crimes in those parts of the city where confidence in the police has eroded to such a degree that citizens no longer call when they are being or have been victimised.

These are challenges for the police force. However, if a sustained reduction in crime and violence is to be realised, it cannot come from within the police force or from the minister of national security.

Unsuitable living conditions and dysfunctional family life are at the root of the country’s social problems. Fatherlessness is a silent killer. It is the most harmful demographic trend of this generation. Fix these and stop giving the police “basket to carry water”.

Glenn Tucker is an educator and a sociologist. Send comments to the Jamaica Observer or e-mail glenntucker2011@gmail.com.