Abstract:
Addressing community violence helps counter criminal violence. The research team was able to engage directly with gangs and crews in communities in Kingston and Spanish Town. By targeting community defence crews and working with them to develop ways of dealing with community conflicts, the Peace Management Initiative (PMI) moved from inter-community mediations as partisan hostility lessened, to intra-community group meetings to deal with turf-based conflicts, and then to pinpointing key individuals who instigated the threat of violence. The report outlines activities, case studies, programmes and outcomes. The project investigates relationships between youth violence and organized crime, the role of women, and counter-measures aimed at influencing gang-related policy.
