Jamaica's Murder Rate ( Causes And Effects )

The country that I chose to conduct a culture analysis on is Jamaica. Jamaica is a third world country located in North America and the 3rd largest island in the Caribbean Sea. There is a 2.5 million population, which equally divided between urban and rural areas. The country runs approximately 146 miles long and varies between 21- 52 miles wide. The climate is tropical and its main tourist attraction is their beautiful beaches. The capital of Jamaica is Kingston, which has a population of more than 645,000. Kingston is the chief port of Jamaica and is along the southeastern coast of the island. It is covered by the “Blue Mountains”, which is thickly covered which tree ferns. The Blue Mountains experiences an average of 200 inches of rain annually, resulting in topsoil erosion and an abundance of streams. Peasants nurture coffee, usually grown on large plantations, in the valleys of the mountains. It is amongst the most expensive coffees in the world and is exported mainly to Japan.

“The imposition of structural adjustment programs in the Third World since the 1970s has been characterized as a war against the poor, a process of [neo] recolonization” (Turner, 1994: 37). This statement is particularly applicable to the country of Jamaica. The island has been susceptible to a variety of neocolonial acts including the presence of multinational corporations, structural adjustment programs, and loan organizations that have sucked Jamaica’s economy dry. This neocolonial presence has devastated the population in more ways than one. It is apparent that neocolonialism has had and continues to have a large impact on society as a whole in Jamaica. This

In an article written in the Jamaica Observer, Haughton (2017) describes the state of Jamaica as an under-developed child who continues to depend on its parents for approval. “For many years colonialism milked Jamaica and other Caribbean countries by imposing a false identity on our people, diminishing resources that affected growth and development (Haughton, 2017).

The Jamaican economy in 1970 was 800 million dollars in debt and by the time of the year 2000 the debt had reached an alarming 7 billion dollars. In order to service its accumulated debts Jamaica set up Exporting Processing Zones or EPZ’s. The free zones created lots of employment to jump-start the economy. The free zones themselves were separate entities to Jamaica, similar to the US-owned cemetery for the WW2 soldiers in Normandy. In this way, the supplies needed for manufacturing never really enter Jamaica, thus allowing for cheap imports. The factories had their downsides though. Workers were only paid in Jamaican dollars about 30USD per week while some were paid that for two weeks. Every two weeks, money was taken out as taxes which angered the Jamaicans

After visiting the country of Jamaica this past summer, I realized how dissimilar some countries can be from the United States. Jamaica was not unlike the United States in a terrible way, but the disparities made me additionally interested in researching about the beautiful and culture-rich country of Jamaica. Even though the majority of facts about the history and culture of the United States and Jamaica are dissimilar, I was surprised to come across some similarities among these two countries.

It is irrational to think that the death penalty – a remote threat at best – will avert murders committed in drug turf wars or by street-level dealers” (Bedau). This shows that the death penalty is not stopping murders from occurring. The introduction to the death penalty conducted a survey were top criminologists stated that the death penalty does not deter homicide rates (Introduction). “For 2009, the average Murder Rate of Death Penalty States was 4.9 [Murder rates by the 100,000], while the average Murder Rate of States without the Death Penalty was 2.8” (Introduction).

Colin Ferguson was born January 14, 1959 in Kingston, Jamaica. His father Von Herman was the managing director for Hercules Agencies, a large pharmaceutical company. Mr. Herman was highly regarded and recognized as a prominent businessman in Jamaica (Montaldo, 2017). Ferguson had four brothers and afforded the privileges that wealth offers in an extreme poverty area. He graduated from Calabar High School in 1969 with a grade average that was ranked in the top third of his class (Montaldo, 2017). In 1978 his father was killed in a car crash and a short time later his mother died from cancer. He would then suffer the loss of the family fortune. At 23 years old Ferguson left Kingston, Jamaica and moved to the U.S. on a Visitor’s Visa (Montaldo, 2017). Jamaican culture is different than American cultures. A study completed in 1997 concerning 225 Jamaican adults, it was found that Jamaican men were considered coarse, reckless, aggressive, lazy, tough, arrogant, stern, disorderly, robust, rigid, autocratic, courageous, and hard headed (Carpenter & Walters, 2011).

The period of slavery in Jamaica have left a number of legacies that the current Jamaican people continues to embrace. Some of these legacies are positive ones while some

Before the 1960’s during the postwar era, there was little crime and the United States crime rate was fairly low. During the early 1960’s, the crime rate accelerated tremendously. During the 1970’s the crime rate remained high, and was constant. Finally during the 1990’s, the United States finally seen a decline in the crime rate until the early 2000’s. With the constant increases and slight decreases in the crime rate, I believe that the crime rate will upsurge within the next decade. During this research paper I will also be discussing some of the underlying problems of the crime rate in the United States. Some problems that predict our crime rate are Drugs, guns, gang affiliations, rapes, murders, things of that nature.

The island of Jamaica is very rich in culture and has many historic turnabouts throughout the years. The country has a rich and complex history including being the first country to have Arawak and Taino Indians settle there.

     The documentary Life and Debt portrays a true example of the impact economic globalization can have on a developing country. When most Americans think about Jamaica, we think about the beautiful beaches, warm weather, and friendly people that make it a fabulous vacation spot. This movie shows the place in a different light, by showing a pressuring problem of debt. The everyday survival of many Jamaicans is based on the economic decisions of the United States and other powerful foreign countries.

     The land of Jamaica is very small. The total land mass area of the island is 4,243 square miles. Stretching 146 miles from east to west and at its furthest points north to south, approximately 51 miles (Encyclopedia Americana, 2001, P 670). Within this area, the land is

Jamaica is not just white sand beaches and mimosas. Behind the thin veil of paradise lurk corruption, violence, and inequalities. Life & Debt illustrates the daily realties of Jamaica following IMF structural adjustment programs. IMF reforms have perpetuated a cycle of debt that Jamaicans have little hope to escape. Although IMF conditionality claims to develop nations so that they can grow and re-pay their lenders, Jamaica is still indebted $4.5 billion dollars and has little development to show for it. Measures of austerity coupled with devaluation, high interest rates, and drops in local wages results in greater unemployment, increased violence, and widening inequality. The bulk of the film focuses on how global integration has undercut

Crime, death, and destruction is a big problem in Latin America. People are getting severely harmed and killed by many things, such as gangs drug, trafficking, human trafficking, not only those things but many others. A lot of people in the world are trying to help the people that are causing major problems to the world’s economy and the people living in it. Sadly, it doesn’t or won’t stop because people think they can do what they want and get away with anything they want without thinking that it’s bad enough not to go to jail. Although, the crime rate in Latin America is higher in some countries, like for instance Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador. Murders and violence are a big problem that need to be controlled and solved by not only government officials but the people themselves.

It has influenced the rise in crime as more persons become squeezed into smaller living areas, which are densely populated. The crime rate escalates as the persons in the densely populated areas desire to climb out of these areas and obtain the lifestyles of the tourists who look prosperous and the “other” Bahamians who are enjoying the “good life”. In order to obtain the “American Dream” as seen by the tourists who come to the Bahamas, some factions of the Bahamian youth turn to selling drugs, prostitution, gangs (which give them the perception of power) and ultimately taking drugs. The desire to become wealthy quickly then causes a proliferation of the drug culture. The drug culture negatively affects other factions of the Bahamian populace as it causes an increase in burglaries, rapes, home invasions, murder etc.