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Summary of case studies307implemented since the late 1960s. The continual localizationand professionalization of the Hong Kong police alsoovercame the challenge caused by the rising proportion of atriskyouths during the 1970s and the cross-border crimewave that struck during the late 1980s and early 1990s.Hong Kong’s service-oriented policing, however, facesnew challenges. The challenges are not only about the threatof transnational crime and traditional crime and its evolutionin cyberspace, but about the demand for proactive action ondomestic violence – where the would-be guardians may bethe perpetrators. This requires balancing the role of stateintervention in family disputes with heightened respect forcivil rights, while at the same time ensuring that socialservices and police collaborate. However, with an increasinglyageing population, more attention will be needed tocurb the growing incidence of crime against the elderly.The low crime rate observed in Hong Kong is a resultof a complicated mixture of cultural traditions, proactivecrime prevention and the emergence of a legitimate ‘consensus’style of law enforcement. Thus, family-orientedConfucianist values, a large professionalized and localizedpolice force that focuses on a client–services approach, strictgun laws, successful cooperative suppression of cross-bordercrime, high levels of formal or informal supervision, proactiveefforts against organized crime and corruption, andsevere punishment for the convicted all serve to reduceopportunity for crime.Trends in crime and violence in Kingston,JamaicaKingston is the capital of Jamaica, with a geographic coverageof 430.7 square kilometres. The 1991 population censusshowed that 538,000 persons lived in the KingstonMetropolitan Area (KMA), and in 2001 that number hadincreased to 651,880. At the end of 2005, Jamaica’s populationstood at 2,660,700. In other words, the KMA accountedfor 21.52 per cent of the population in 1991, compared to24.5 per cent in 2001, which represents a populationgrowth rate for the KMA of 2.3 per cent – more than fourtimes higher than the overall population growth rate forJamaica. The KMA has limited access to land, leading toenvironmental problems such as squatting and the unsustainableuse of natural resources. There are considerablestrains on the environment resulting from rapid populationgrowth, inadequate housing, waste management andimproper drainage in some areas.The KMA is characterized by many inner-city communitiesand informal settlements with predominantly highunemployment levels, inadequate infrastructure and socialservices, proliferation of gang violence, and drug use andtrafficking, as well as poverty. The greater KMA remains themost criminally active and dangerous area in Jamaica. Itexperiences various forms of violent crimes, such as murder,assaults, shootings and robberies. Kingston has the highestrate of murder of the three major urban areas in Jamaica.Over the past three decades there has been a generalincrease in murders in Jamaica. In 1970, the country’shomicide rate was 8.1 per 100,000 individuals. By 2002, ithad increased to 40 per 100,000, and by 2005, it had risento 64 per 100,000, making Jamaica one of the countries withthe highest murder rates in the world. Between 1998 and2005, the Jamaican police reported 8993 murders – approximately76 per cent of these murders occurred in the KMA.In view of the escalating levels of crime and its destabilizingimpacts, the Government of Jamaica has initiatedseveral social programmes at the national, parish andcommunity levels in partnership with several internationalagencies such as the IDB, the Canadian InternationalDevelopment Agency, DFID, USAID, the EU and the WorldBank.Utilizing a collaborative approach, the Jamaicangovernment, in conjunction with several international andlocal partners, has developed various initiatives andprogrammes to address the policy-making process, socialproblems and crime and violence in the country. A multilevelapproach has been employed by the Ministry of NationalSecurity involving police crime-fighting initiatives andnumerous community safety and security programmes thatoperate mainly in Kingston. At the national level, OperationKingfish was launched in 2004 as a major anti-crime initiative.With the assistance of international partners, OperationKingfish has been successful in its mandate of dismantlinggangs within the Kingston corporate area and has recoverednumerous firearms and ammunition and equipment used indrug trafficking.At the community level, two success stories particularlystand out. These are Fletcher’s Land and Grants Pen,where social intervention programmes include initiativessuch as remedial education, mentoring programmes, identifyingjob and skills training, dispute resolution, homeworkprogrammes, continuing education services and parentingworkshops. These initiatives have brought about some shorttermsuccess. For instance, the community of Grants Penhad not recorded a single murder during 2006 until thepoint when this case study was drafted, whereas previouslyit had been regarded as one of the most volatile communitiesin Kingston.One of the key lessons from crime fighting and crimeprevention initiatives in Kingston is that the people shouldbe the key focus of such initiatives. Furthermore, a collaborativeapproach with international agencies, governmentinstitutions and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) canprove effective in reducing crime and violence. While itshould be noted that Kingston’s programmes cannot beapplied, as a whole, to all other urban areas since theseprogrammes have not been assessed, the approach used canbe duplicated by other urban areas by using the followingprinciples:• Use crime prevention approaches that operate at thegrassroots level, where the common citizen can see,feel and react to issues. Generally, Jamaica had successat the tactical and conceptual levels, but it was notmuch felt by the citizenry.• Utilize a prescriptive approach rather than a reactiveapproach, which fails to attack the root of the problem.Community needs must be assessed through consulta-