AS REPORTED elsewhere in today's publication, a female student was along with two of her male colleagues when they were picked up by the St. James police yesterday for possesson of ammunition. Also yesterday, our sister publication, The STAR, reported on the increased incidence of women aiding and abetting criminals in their criminal enterprise.
While women have long been willing partners in crime, the reports speak of new levels of organisation and sophistication among women, who have taken their roles to a different plane. They are no longer satisfied to play second fiddle by being mere lookouts or simply to hide loot or weapons. They are now actively engaged in robbery, murder and confrontation with security forces in an effort to allow their cronies to escape.
These developments should perhaps form part of the studies and sociological analyses which Finance and Planning Minister, Dr. Omar Davies, suggested earlier this week needed to be undertaken to help the society get on top of the crime problem. What is driving this underbelly of criminality? Why are more young people being sucked into a lifestyle of dishonesty and brutality?
There is no biological reason to suggest that men are inherently more criminal than women. But in practice, this would appear to be the case. So the extent to which more women are moving into the more overt active roles in a life of crime, is rich ground for sociological study and cause for bigger challenges for our security forces.
Perhaps the exposure to overseas gangs and their modus operandi, whether through popular entertainment media or through deportees, may be one route through which new forms of criminality are being learnt. Whatever the cause, it is but another indication of Jamaica's downward spiral into social dysfunction.
The role models being emulated are changing rapidly in a culture that now celebrates 'bling' and instant gratification.
Once again, the society is faced with a big challenge: How to abort the incidence of juvenile delinquency before it reaches unmanageable proportions. In response to the new trend, the police say they will be targeting women who obstruct justice, support gunmen and participate in the criminal act itself. We would expect no less from the security forces.
But tackling it may also mean re-examining the recruitment of detectives and other investigative officers, an expansion of women's units in our security forces and even giving consideration to building more jails for those convicted. The challenge in fighting crime is that it has to be tackled on several fronts all at once, but it is one from which the society cannot resile.
THE OPINIONS ON THIS PAGE, EXCEPT FOR THE ABOVE, DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE VIEWS OF THE GLEANER.
