The Editor, Sir:

The one thing that will positively impact the high murder/crime rate, perhaps more than anything else, is poverty alleviation. The crime problem is symptomatic of a larger economic problem. That economic problem is unemployment and poverty, pure and simple.

Because of this, the social fabric has gradually weakened over the past decade and a half and is currently at breaking point. As one popular talk show host likes to say, "things falls apart, the centre cannot hold."

Finding root cause

Following a recent episode of violence in his constituency, Member of Parliament Ronald Thwaites accurately and succinctly summed up the problem in a nutshell. He said the young men are idle, armed and angry.

This diagnosis is true on the national scale as well. Unless the root causes of the crime problem are properly diagnosed, the relevant treatment will not be applied.

I am, etc.,

PATRICK A. GALLIMORE

pagalley@hotmail.com

Kingston