UWI St. Augustine PhD students in crime-related research fields given critical support On November 29, 2019, three PhD students from the St. Augustine Campus engaged in an all-day seminar geared at building their research competences. Seminars like this one, held annually by the Institute and the Criminology Department at St. Augustine, provide an opportunity for peer-learning and holds the students to account for delivering their dissertations on a planned timeline. Throughout the six years that the seminar has been held, there is an evident improvement in the levels of rigour and general quality of students' work.
ICJS strengthened its partnerships with overseas researchers. Research on Caribbean criminology is bolstered by our international partners who possess an avid interest in what we do. Throughout the 2019/2020 academic year, several opportunities were seized to further these research connections.
In August 2019, ICJS partnered with the University of Amsterdam (UvA) to host a seminar on policing and citizen security. Presentations were made by UWI's senior lecturer Dr. Yonique Campbell and UvA professor, Prof. Rivke Jaffe.
Professor Rivke Jaffe of the University of Amsterdam (top left-hand corner) listens with much delight as Dr. Yonique Campbell delivers her presentation at ICJS seminar held at The UWI Regional Headquarters on Thursday, August 22, 2019.
Additionally, visiting researcher Roberto Rivera, a PhD candidate at the University of California, Riverside, delivered his Fulbright lecture in September 2019. Rivera was at ICJS on a year-long Fulbright sponsorship to further his doctoral studies on policing.
In May 2020, ICJS Research Fellow collaborated with colleagues from London School of Economics Latin America and Caribbean Centre and Utrecht University to participate in a panel on exploring the governance of everyday insecurity and violence from below. The exchange saw the Research Fellow sharing from recent work surrounding the construction of safer spaces in Latin America and the Caribbean.
ICJS has entered a contractual arrangement with UWI Press, with the latter having the right and license to print, publish and distribute globally the Caribbean Journal of Criminology (CJC). It is expected that this new arrangement will mark a new frontier in the Journal's history and that its reach will supersede that of prior years. The CJC, a publication of the Institute, is a multi-disciplinary, peer-reviewed journal, and is the sole journal of criminology located within the region.
An image of the newly designed cover for the upcoming issue of the Caribbean Journal of Criminology, the first output from the new publishing arrangement between UWI Press and ICJS.
The Ministry of Justice (MOJ), Jamaica and ICJS spent the last quarter of the academic year assessing its training programme for their facilitators in Restorative Justice (RJ). Much of the groundwork for the digitization of its training offerings in RJ was laid. It is expected that the training course will be piloted online in the second semester of the 2020 academic year. The UWI accreditation of the training programme is to be pursued in 2021.
At the beginning of the academic year (August 5, 2019), the Research Fellow delivered a presentation on “Gangs and Organized Crime in Jamaica” to a group of gang researchers and intervention practitioners working in Canada, the United States, Belize and Latin America. The invitation was proffered by the National Gang Crime Research Center (NGCRC), USA.
ICJS Research Fellow, Tarik Weekes (left), and Dr. Sally-Ann Ashton (right), lecturer at Edge Hill University (England) pose for the camera at the International Gang Conference. The two were among a group of eight scholars being recognised for their contribution to research on gangs and their prevention by the NGCRC.
ICJS entered a partnership with the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC) to produce a policy paper on how to improve violence reduction programmes in Jamaica. The partnership comes on the heel of ICJS's participation at a conference organised by GI and The London School of Economics on the production of illegal drugs and the living standards of rural people in Latin America. The Global Initiative is an independent civil-society organization, headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. Its network of members is dedicated to seeking new and innovative strategies and responses to organized crime.
In May 2020, the Institute brought together a group of researchers to analyse the impact of COVID-19 on crime trends within the Caribbean region. The multi-country study includes researchers from Barbados, Trinidad, Jamaica, and Saint Lucia, and colleagues from George Mason University (USA). Results from this collaboration are expected to be published in 2021.
During the period under review, the Director continued to supervise three PhD students.
In October 2019, the Government, Opposition, civil society and the private sector industry associations agreed to support a bipartisan process of developing a National Consensus on Crime to transform Jamaica into a safe, secure and investment-friendly society. ICJS, through its Director, participated in the civil society-led working group to help to bring about a two-party consensus on crime prevention and control policy in Jamaica. Year-long efforts of the working group bore fruit when the National Consensus on Crime was signed on August 3, 2020 by the Prime Minister of Jamaica and the Leader of the Opposition.
Prime Minister, the Most Hon. Andrew Holness (left), in discussion with President, Jamaica Chamber of Commerce, Lloyd Distant (second right), during the National Consensus on Crime stakeholder meeting at the Office of the Prime Minister in St. Andrew on June 25. Others taking part (from second left) are Attorney General, Marlene Malahoo Forte; Chairman of the Violence Prevention Alliance (VPA), Dr. Elizabeth Ward; and Director of ICJS at The UWI, Professor Anthony Harriott. Other stakeholders who joined virtually can be seen in the background. Photo Credit: Jamaica Information Service
Prime Minister Andrew Holness (left), addresses the National Consensus on Crime stakeholder meeting. AG Malahoo Forte is pictured at right. Photo Credit: Jamaica Information Service
ICJS lent its support to the USAID's Caribbean Youth Violence Advocacy and Action Agenda (AAA) and the Community Family and Youth Resiliency Programme implemented in Saint Lucia, St. Kitts and Guyana. ICJS Research Fellow reviewed materials for the development of an online course in the AAA toolkit. Added to that, the Research Fellow was invited to be part of an adjudication panel for a youth violence campaign involving seven teams across the region and whose members participated in the online course which began in January 2020.
The Institute's Director served as a member of the Police Services Commission (PSC), an organ that forms part of the police governance structure, and is responsible for senior appointments and recommendations on disciplinary proceedings in the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF). He also continues to serve on the Police Oversight Authority (PCOA), a body established under the Ministry of National Security to ensure observance of proper policing standards. Both the PSC and the PCOA are useful sites for helping to bring about police transformation.
Each year, September 21 is celebrated as an International Day of Peace. ICJS Project Officer spearheaded the launch of its inaugural Peace Day activities, a 2019 poster competition, to raise awareness amongst university students within the region to the importance of combatting climate change as a way to protect and promote peace and security throughout the Caribbean and across the globe.
The Research Fellow was asked to serve on the Clarendon Inter-sectorial Youth Crime and Violence Prevention Committee. The committee—which comprises members of the business community in Clarendon (Jamaica), mayor's office and other stakeholders—have been working together to implement secondary and tertiary level interventions to reduce crime and violence in intervention communities within the parish.
The Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) entered partnership arrangements with The UWI to establish a Caribbean Military Academy (CMA). The ICJS Director continued to expend much effort to assist with the development of a new PhD programme in Leadership (and Strategic Studies). This effort is one way of giving meaning to the joint UWI-JDF agreement which was signed by the Vice-Chancellor.
This course will introduce students to criminological research and theories related to gang study. The draft document has been submitted to colleagues at the Cave Hill and St. Augustine campuses for their comments. The course, designed by an ICJS Research Fellow, is expected to be piloted initially as a fee-paying online course and it is hoped that it would be adopted as an undergraduate course offering for UWI enrolled students.
A 2011 three-year anti-gang strategy for the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) indicated that a gang awareness course would be essential towards the full implementation of a community-based gang reduction strategy. Progress with getting the ICJS course approved is expected in 2021.
In January 2020, the Research Fellow was invited to serve as an external representative on the Local Partner Development (LPD) Grant Evaluation Committee. Funded by USAID, LPD is a six-year development initiative to strengthen local organizations to increase the safety and security of Jamaicans. It is also part of USAID's strategy to decrease crime and violence through community-based initiatives, while simultaneously strengthening Jamaican civil society organisations. Since his appointment, the Research Fellow has reviewed at least ten grant submissions for crime and violence reduction efforts in Kingston and St. Andrew and St. Catherine. The appointment to the Grant Evaluation Committee is for one year initially.
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