Kingston has long had a reputation for factional violence. As early as the 1940’s, fierce political disputes between the Jamaica Labour Party and the People’s National Party turned violent, culminating in the political warfare of the 1970’s and 1980’s, when hundreds of supporters of both parties from the inner-city or “garrison” areas were killed. Then, gun violence mostly occurred at election time, and was political in nature. Guns were even issued by politicians to their “soldiers” in the inner-city, which depended to some degree on party patronage, just as the politicians depended on the gunmen for support.
Violent crime has increased in Jamaica since the election-time warfare of the 70’s and 80’s. The intra and inter-community violence plaguing the country occurs mainly in Kingston’s garrison communities, including the “government yards of Trench Town” made famous by Bob Marley. Many of these rival areas, made up of informal and government housing, are separated from each other by only a street or a no-mans land of barren lots. While fierce partisan conflict may still serve as the backdrop, disputes are increasingly over control of the extortion racket, drug trade, or due to slighted honour or respect.
The homicide rate increased from 17.6 per 100,000 citizens in 1976 to a peak of 43 per 100,000 in 2001 (since dropping somewhat). That makes Jamaica among the regions and even the world’s most violent nations. As in so many countries, most homicides are attributed to gun violence and most of the perpetrators and the victims of homicide are young men and adolescent boys.
While the violence of the 1970’s and 1980’s was attributed to older “big men” from the garrison communities, children and youth are seen as increasingly involved in today’s community violence. As a young man in an inner city neighbourhood pointed out, a 16 year-old may now be seen as old enough to be a gunman. In a joint World Bank and University of the West Indies study on urban violence and poverty in Jamaica, residents said that youth as young as 12 and 13 may participate in gun and/or gang violence.
“There is a shift in age and you see more early teens involved in gangs through the corners, just hanging out,” says Wilson. “They exert their manhood through certain types of behaviour...through how you articulate yourself, through dancehall music. They demand respect through the number of girlfriends, number of children fathered and through the ownership of a gun.”
