THE EDITOR, Sir:
THE JAMAICAN society must be made fully aware that crime costs both financially and emotionally.
I am not aware of the government ever convening a study in an attempt to calculate the annual cost of crime to both victims of crime and the general public who ultimately pay for every criminal act.
If not, a study needs to be undertaken by the Ministry of National Security and the Health Ministry and the findings made public in Parliament, so the population will understand that crime is everybody's business and not only for the police and the government.
The population must be made to understand that the monies spent on criminal acts could be better utilised for many social and economic upliftment programmes and provide many needed public amenities.
INDIRECT COSTS
Crime costs more than the losses to the victims, except in cases of murder.
Such indirect cost as police salaries and equipment, police vehicles and maintenance, police crime laboratory, criminal courts, prisons, probation and parole services and the health services, may run the total cost to victims and the public into millions or billions of dollars annually.
And what about those costs that should be added such as loss of productive labour by men and women in prisons (and their guards) and the cost of theft insurance and the installation of protective devices by business and home owners and the hiring of armed and unarmed guards.
The mushrooming of security companies in Jamaica speaks volumes as somebody has to pay for their services.
LET'S WORK TOGETHER
Much of the cost of crime is other than financial. For loss of life and of health there is an emotional price for crime in terms of insecurity and anxiety; and the ultimate cost of corruption and organised crime can be the destruction of some of our cherished institutions.
Jamaicans, let's work together and support the government in its crime fighting and prevention plan, so we can lower the financial and emotional cost of crime for our future survival.
I am, etc,
D. RHODES
Very Concerned Citizen
