Impact of Crime

The effects of crime and violence on the Jamaican economy

Did you know that the average daily murder rate for 2007 was 4.31persons? So says

Ms Antoinette Richards, community development specialist, Planning Institute of

Jamaica (PIOJ), and the figure for major crimes in Jamaica for 2007 was 7283.

Crime and violence has a negative impact on the Jamaican economy in many areas; some of the main areas are Health, Investment, Tourism and Education.

Over the last ten years, there has been a sharp increase in the nation’s medical bill due to the increased crime rate. A study carried out by the World Bank in 2004 shows that in 2001, the health care cost was J$1.3 billion which translate to 0.4% of Gross domestic product this can be broken down into $996 million for the public health care system and $225 million for private health care. This has put tremendous pressure on the government to find the already scarce resource to fund the health budget for the fiscal year. Jamaica is already spending approximately 70 cents from every $1 in the servicing of debts, which leaves just 30 cents in the dollar to provide all the necessary services for the population. When ever there is high health cost what this means is that there is less money to spend on security, education and other equally important services that the state should provide.

There is also the issue of the health workers. Under normal circumstances, the doctors and nurses find it very hard to cope because in a lot of cases, the hospitals and health centres are under staffed and they have to work long hours in order to complete their work load. Now picture having to add the many emergencies they have to deal with on a daily basis due to domestic and gang violence , just to name a few. Crime does impact health.