Minister of National Security, Dr. Peter Phillips (left), in conversation with Senator Kern Spencer, Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry, at yesterday's official launch of the National Youth Initiative on Crime and Violence. - Junior Dowie/Staff Photographer DR. PETER Phillips, the National Security Minister, yesterday launched the National Youth Initiative on Crime and Violence, and declared that the island has experienced a decline in most major crimes since March.
Murder has declined by 11 per cent over last year; rape has gone down also by 11 per cent; carnal abuse by 17 per cent and breaking by 14 per cent, the Minister said.
However, according to Dr. Phillips, crime rates are still too high and the problem of crime and violence continues to be a major source of national concern.
He made the comments at a press conference at the Ministry of National Security in Kingston where he also announced the holding of a one-day youth forum dubbed 'Youth United Against Crime and Violence', which will be held at the Jamaica Conference Centre, downtown Kingston, on Thursday.
The conference will involve about 2,000 persons from about 50 organisations across the island, such as the National Initiative for Street Children, the UWI Guild of Students, Youth Opportunities Unlimited, HEART/NTA, Northern Caribbean University, Shortwood Teachers' College, Jamaica Youth for Christ, the 4H Club and the Enchanted Youth Association, among others.
The youth initiative is being launched against the background of the high involvement of persons aged 30 years old and younger in crime, both as perpetrators as well as victims, Minister Phillips said.
A look at statistics for the past five years indicated that close to 80 per cent of all persons arrested for major crimes were young persons under 30 years old, the Minister reported, adding, that of those arrested for murder, 75 per cent were 30 years old or under.
Regarding victims of murder, statistics between 1999 and 2001 showed that 52 per cent were 30 years old and under and 85 per cent of the victims of rape were also in a similar age group, said Dr. Phillips, noting that obviously, it was an area that required immediate intervention.
The youth forum is "the beginning of an initiative that will seek to find lasting solutions to the problem of youth involvement in criminal lifestyles," the Minister said. This change, he said, would require a change in values and attitudes that would need the collaboration of the wider society to institute non-violent ways of solving conflicts.
Also speaking at yesterday's function was Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry of National Security, Senator Kern Spencer, who said the forum was focusing as a matter of priority on the areas of Kingston, St. Andrew, St. Catherine and Montego Bay, St. James, as statistics had identified these areas as having the highest incidence of youth involvement in crime.
The plan, he said, was to hold other regional conferences to ensure that young persons in the rural areas were exposed to the same message and were involved in the initiative.
The forum is scheduled to get under way at 8:30 a.m. and the workshops which begin at 1:40 p.m. will cover topics such as parenting issues, youth and the police, first offenders, strategies for maintaining community peace, alternatives and opportunities and strategies for getting the guns.
