KINGSTON, Jamaica — Prime Minister Andrew Holness says a report by the National Commission on Violence Prevention, chaired by Professor Maureen Vaughan, on social violence is expected to go to Cabinet shortly.

Holness, who was speaking at a post-Cabinet press briefing on Thursday, noted that while efforts are being made to reduce murders and organised crime, social violence in society remains a cause for concern.

“The violence challenge that we have, the crime problem that we have, is multifaceted, and we have only dealt with one dimension of it. Granted, it is the main dimension of the problem, which is the organised nature of violence that we have in the country, the organised institutional violence, and that is what we are dealing with. But there is still what I term the social violence,” the prime minister said.

Explaining what he meant by the term, he said, “The use of violence as a means of social interaction. The use of violence to resolve conflicts. The use of violence to discipline children. The use of violence in intimate partner relationships and the use of violence to solve neighbourly conflicts.”

Holness pointed to an incident reported on Tuesday between two neighbours, which resulted in the fatal shooting of one of them. The incident was caught on CCTV footage.

READ: Police investigating fatal shooting incident caught on camera

“As we reduce the murder rate, and as we reduce organised violence, social violence now becomes the central focus and activity,” he said.

The prime minister said that as part of the Government’s Secure Jamaica plan, the National Violence Commission was empanelled to conduct a study on social violence.

“The report is in the possession of the Government now. We will bring it to Cabinet shortly, and once Cabinet has reviewed it, it will be tabled in Parliament. This report, we hope, will trigger a national conversation about who we are as a people and why violence has become such a part of our national profile and how we are going to change that,” he noted.

Holness said the Government is also contemplating measures to address violence in schools and homes, and violence against women and girls.

“We saw this really disturbing road rage incident, if you can call it that, where a nurse was terribly abused, and we then saw the brutal rape of a nine-year-old girl a few weeks ago. These are all issues that the nation has to focus on if we are going to truly keep this murder rate down and get to the regional average and below.”

Noting that the regional average murder rate is 16 per 100,000, he continued, “There was once a time in Jamaica when our murder rate was three per cent in the 1960s, and we can get back there. This is not us, and we have come to accept it in our music, how we talk, and how we interact with each other, but this is not us, and we are now right on the cusp of correcting these age-old problems,” he said.

To tackle social violence in society, Holness said there must be legislative change, institutional changes and partnerships with civil society.

“If we accomplish this as a nation, we are well on our way… There is no stopping after that, so we are on the move, Jamaica,” Holness said.

-Vanassa McKenzie