by TONY BEST

WITH CRIME ESCALATING in several Caribbean nations, there is pressing need for a deeper study to find out why young men are turning to this kind of life.

The call for more research has come from Vice-Chancellor of the University of the West Indies, Professor Nigel Harris.

He told the DAILY NATION in New York that it wasn't enough for Caribbean states to look at how other countries were trying to keep young men in school, how they were tackling their crime problems, or their strategies.

Instead, said Harris, the Caribbean should be conducting more of its own research to find out why the incidence of crime was on the rise.

At the same time, more research was needed to determine why so many young men were "dropping out" of the school system and eventually turning to a life of crime.

"We ourselves need to do studies within our own communities to understand some of what was happening. I don't want to link males to crime, but in truth I believe that the young men who drop out of the system are more likely to be involved in crime," said Harris, adding that the research and models to keep males in the system were very important.

Harris, who was careful not to pinpoint any particular country, said the issue of poverty and its reduction was also another area ripe for research, and indicated that the UWI was well placed to conduct some of the studies while providing training in criminology and related areas to fight crime.

Already, he said, some funds were "coming" into the university from outside the region to help boost the work of its special institute on crime, so it could train more people and help "in terms of research, understanding some of the causes of crime, post graduate research and how one would alleviate and help reduce crime".

"You want to be able to have people with the time, freedom and ability to look the world over," he said.

"There are programmes; some have worked, some don't work – and to be able to determine the applicability to the Caribbean of those that work."

More than 1 000 people were murdered in Jamaica alone during the first nine months of the year.