Page 80 - Social Norms Survey

challenge you—or you are unemployed—and you have time to think, your mind starts to

run on these things. That is why young people must have a lot of activities.

Violence they define broadly from anything meant to
harm somebody, including verbal abuse up to shootings

and murder. It is caused by poverty and unemployment,
jealousy —“badmind”—at the possessions of another

and a desire to take some for oneself, stress, as well as
poor communication and misunderstanding. The PMI group had only one word for it,

“war”: suggesting the gang environment that they inhabit. They suggested that violence
starts from “any little thing”: gambling, woman, football, a simple disagreement that two

people could have talked over. It can also start from a more significant disagreement
like a quarrel over the distribution of “big money” (the implication being the proceeds of

crime) like half a million dollars.

The youth from one community in St. James made
it clear that they had taken a fatalistic approach to

their future. This group condones, and has virtually
legitimized, criminal activities. For them violence

is deeply embedded in the culture. Members of
this group are less amenable to solutions and most

have decided that they have to be involved in criminality to survive. It could be solved
but not by them, not under this present unjust “system.” These youth argue that because

of this system in St. James, a man has to adapt. Sometimes the youth find themselves
involved in a war that has been going on for 10 or 15 years “an we haffi grow inna it”—

their perception is that they have no choice. The experience in some deeply divided
communities is that—with the exception of those who are in regular jobs, have cars, hardly

stay in the community during the day and may
have some leverage from their money and skills—

all males are targets in the war, simply because of
where they live. They have little choice except to

leave the community (usually not an option) or to
defend themselves.

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