Given Jamaica’s high crime environment, journalists are consistently focusing on the issue. They must routinely develop defence mechanisms so that they are not harmed psychologically/emotionally by the terrible stories they must tell their fellow Jamaicans. There are talented people who have left journalism because of that challenge.

Also, down the years, Jamaican journalists have, on rare occasions, died as a result of criminal violence.

For instance, older media practitioners vividly recall the murder of the highly respected retired sports editor of the Star newspaper Mr Jack Anderson in the latter 1970s. Back then, word on the street was of mistaken identity
— the terrible deed carried out by a contract killer.

This week, journalists are struggling to cope with the seemingly senseless murder of Mr Job Nelson of The Gleaner Sports Desk in Kingston.

Mr Nelson was a hard-working professional. Also, he was a kind, affable, likeable man
— which makes it even harder for colleagues and friends to come to terms with his untimely death.

We will probably never know the motive, but we also know that in Jamaica, land we love, there need not be reason.

The reality is that, even as journalists mourned Mr Nelson’s death, they were also reporting on several other seemingly senseless murders across the country.

Current police statistics show that murders
— commonly used as the prime indicator of the crime problem
— are significantly down since the start of this year. That suggests the constabulary and the Government are getting some things right.

Still, one important thing we are not seeing is a comprehensive plan to properly socialise our children and young people, so that they do not become easy recruits for the ruthless people who are at the core of our problems.

In our view, that must happen to sustainably bring crime to heel.

We hear that child abuse cases in Jamaica number about 15,000 annually. We don’t need experts to tell us that some of those abused children become the twisted, cold-hearted criminals and murderers among us.

It’s often said that poor parenting is a prime cause for crime and delinquency. That’s true. But when and how did offending Jamaican adults learn good parenting skills? Truthfully, in the main, they too were poorly brought up.

Head of the Child Protection and Family Services Agency’s Investigation Unit Ms Ericka Gilbert-Hope speaks of the need to proactively teach people to be good parents.

She says that there is “no manual”. However, she argues that, at prenatal clinics, good parenting skills should be rigorously taught.

Which begs the question: Why does should society assume that all adults know how to be good parents?

We have argued here that teaching parenting skills should be part and parcel of comprehensive community organisation aimed at improving lives and livelihoods.

Hence the need for all hands on deck, led by the Government and our two political parties, working together to execute an effective values and attitudes programme, allied to such social interventions as the private sector’s admirable Project STAR.

Bringing crime to heel won’t happen overnight. It won’t happen in any one political cycle. But it can happen over time, if we all, as a unified people, put in the effort.