Searching for Lessons from Two Decades of Anti-Violence Interventions in August Town

Jamaica’s extraordinarily high levels of violence undermine citizen
security and retard economic growth. Over the past two decades,
dozens of state and non-state actors, in a desire for peace, have
initiated several violence-reduction/intervention programmes in
August Town, a poor, violence-plagued community in Kingston.
So when, in 2016, the community recorded “zero murders,” all of
Jamaica took note. After decades of extraordinarily high violence,
with a homicide rate of 120 per 100,000, how did August Town
achieve this? With reference to August Town’s “zero murders” in
2016, this study explored the various theories with the objective
to distil “lessons” from August Town’s experience, particularly
as it regards anti-violence interventions, with the aim to build
knowledge on the different approaches to reducing violence in
high violence settings; and ultimately to inform GoJ decisions
regarding the direction of and investment in violence prevention
intervention programmes in violence-ridden communities.The study found that the panoply of anti-violence/violence reduction interventions was not sustained, and in the absence of consistent, quantitative programme impact evaluations, there was no way of truly knowing what effects they have had, whether positive or negative, or if they had any effect at all. Broadly speaking, there was no quantifiable evidence of any of these interventions having had any effect on the social, economic, and violence indicators for the community, which remain unchanged.