Jamaica is, by itself, an island paradise to many. This is evident in the large number of return visitors we get to our white sandy beaches and for warm sunshine year after year. However, that paradise is continuously threatened by the large incidence of violent crimes — a problem in which this Administration and several before it have been locked, in a seemingly never ending battle to curtail.

It is a well known fact that crime has myriad causality factors and measures to prevent it must also be multifaceted, as many social processes precede the end product of a man shot dead or an armed robbery. One factor that is not often elevated in the discussion is the correlation between violent crimes and the existence of security of tenure and homeownership in communities.

According to a study by American psychologist Mark Linbald (2013) “homeownership exerts a robust yet indirect effect in reducing crime and disorder as well as increasing collective efficacy”. Collective efficacy is described as a community’s ability to control the behaviour of members within the community to create an orderly communal space. This effect is caused by the homeowners, particularly those with security of tenure, being, effectively, shareholders in the community. Having invested in their neigbourhood and their homes, this financial benefit is often translated into varying social benefits, one being their active participation in the suppression of social disorder.

In that light, they have a vested interest in maintaining the value of their homes and protecting them from forces that may reduce their financial benefit, principal among those forces being crime. As such, communities that are made up primarily of homeowners are statistically less likely to be infested by violent crime or social disorder. The reasons for this are varied; however, for the purposes of this column, I am solely concerned with the impact that this specific variable (homeownership and security of tenure) has on violent crime and social disorder.

Causation or correlation?

A complication arises when you try to assign causality, as no study has really answered the question as to whether homeownership actually deters crime or if it is that lower crime rates are more attractive to prospective homeowners and therefore influence higher rates of homeownership. However, according to a published 2009 study by University of Nebraska professors, an increase of one per cent in homeownership reduced the yearly cost of violent crimes by US$1 billion! This is the closest any study has come to answering this chicken-and-egg question, and even if one is still not convinced of the existence of a causal relationship, the strength of the correlation cannot be denied.

The Jamaican context and Government action

For years Jamaica’s economy and policies did not facilitate the process of homeownership and as such, many have been forced into the rental industry, and those who cannot afford to rent, occupy lands illegally. At last count, over 20 per cent of Jamaica’s population resides on illegally occupied lands. This is untenable, especially given the statistics that exist on the rate of crime and social disorder in huge squatter settlements, primarily in the nation’s main urban areas.

This again is due to several intervening variables but is also exacerbated by the general unwillingness of residents in these communities to support the investigative efforts of law enforcement personnel. Squatter communities, by their very nature, lack the social benefits and collective efficacy found in organised, formalised and legal communities. This may be a result of the squatter residents’ inability to derive any real added benefit from helping to control community spaces beyond the boundaries of their perimeter fence. It must be appreciated then, that reducing the frequency of squatting and providing Jamaicans with safe, legal and affordable housing opportunities are critical elements that must be considered in our long-term crime-fighting plan.

For its part, the Government has been actively trying to improve understanding of and solutions to the issue of squatting, primarily through the recently launched Squatter Survey currently underway. If the body of research is anything to go by, then reducing the incidence of squatting should have a positive impact on crime in some of our most volatile communities in the long run. Coupled with the Squatter Survey, the Government has embarked on a sustained community rehabilitation programme, as well as a land titling programme aimed at regularising land occupation.

Additionally, the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, along with its relevant agencies, including the National Housing Trust (NHT), have been relentless in improving access to safe, legal and affordable housing. The raft of new NHT measures, as well as the reinvigoration of agencies such as the Housing Agency of Jamaica, among others, demonstrate a retooling of our policies to make it easier for Jamaicans, regardless of class or age, to transition into homeownership. Recently, the prime minister and Minister Pearnel Charles Jr handed over several homes in Darliston, Westmoreland, a development with an average age range of 25-36 years.

Developments like Darliston, once sustained, portends well for our country on multiple fronts. The Government aims to deliver over 23,000 more of these housing solutions to Jamaicans by 2021, and if that rate is continued beyond that point and in tandem with the rehabilitation and regularisation of volatile squatter settlements and land titling across the country, we may see it redounding to the benefit of our fight against crime and social disorder in the long run. As is often said however, “the proof is definitely in the pudding”.

— Kemoy Lindsay is technical advisor in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation. Feedback: editorial@jamaicaobserver.com