Earl Wright | Build better brains to break Jamaica’s cycle of violence

Every week, Jamaica wakes up to headlines soaked in blood. A nurse is brutalised. A nine-year-old girl is raped and murdered. A young mother and her four children are slaughtered. We gasp. We mourn. We march with posters, “We want justice,” and light candles. But by the following week, we move on – until the next tragedy.

Why does this keep happening? Because we have never addressed the root cause.

Jamaica now has the second-highest murder rate in the world – 48.35 murders per 100,000 people – surpassing many war-torn nations. Yet we continue to respond to violence without confronting its origins. What we face is not merely a crime crisis; it is a psychosocial and developmental emergency.

Let’s be clear: we are not born violent. We become violent through exposure to trauma, neglect, and emotional deprivation, especially in the earliest years of life. Research by the late Professor Fredrick Hickling found that over 41 per cent of Jamaicans have a personality disorder, with the majority being economically disadvantaged young men between the ages of 18 and 44. This is not just a statistic – it is a national alarm bell.

Jamaica’s violence crisis is, at its core, a crisis of early brain development.

As a psychiatrist, I see this every day. By age five or six, a child’s emotional wiring is largely formed. When a child grows up in fear – exposed to harsh punishment, neglect, or abuse – their brain adapts for survival, not connection. It becomes wired for hypervigilance, distrust, and aggression. These early patterns often become the foundation for detachment, violence, and criminal behaviour.

This is not just theory – it is neuroscience.

WE MUST BUILD BETTER BRAINS

The good news is that we already have evidence-based programmes – developed, piloted, and tested right here in Jamaica. What we lack is the scale, funding, and sustained political will across administrations to bring them to the national level.

We must expand the Early Childhood Stimulation Programme (ECSP) and parenting interventions under the Ministry of Health’s Family Health Services to reach at least 80 per cent of children under age three. These initiatives train caregivers to support brain development through nurturing, language, and structured play during the first 1,000 days of life – when 80 per cent of the brain is formed.

We must also scale up proven resilience-building programmes like Dream-a-World, which foster emotional development and healing in early childhood education settings. At the same time, we need a national network of trauma-informed teachers, police officers, and community workers – trained to recognize psychological distress and determined to prevent and respond to Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs).

In violence-plagued communities, we must create safe spaces for youth, embed mentorship programmes, and establish trauma recovery centres to interrupt the cycle of pain before it becomes violence.

These actions must align with broader education reforms, including those outlined in the Patterson and Davis reports. We must realign our national budget to prioritize prevention over reaction.

We can protect the next generation from becoming tomorrow’s headlines.

THIS IS OUR MOMENT

We’ve waited too long. Professor Hickling raised the alarm more than a decade ago. The data is clear. The solutions are documented—in the archives of the University of the West Indies, the Ministries of Health and Education, and the Early Childhood Commission. But implementation has lagged.

Meanwhile, the future is being shaped in the streets of August Town, the hills of Clarendon, and the lanes of Spanish Town. What kind of nation are we hardwiring into our children?

This transformation will not happen overnight. But with coordinated, cross-government commitment, we can raise children who do not see violence as normal – because they were raised in safety, with love, structure, and hope.

We must stop waiting for the next atrocity to mourn. It is time to treat the cause of Jamaica’s violence – not just its symptoms.

The programmes exist. The science is clear. The cost is manageable. What we need now is unified, courageous, and sustained action.

WHERE DO WE START?

• If you’re a parent: Be gentle. Love is not weakness. Discipline is not cruelty.

• If you’re a teacher or pastor: Learn to spot trauma. Be a source of safety.

• If you’re a police officer: Protect with empathy. Understand that many you encounter are living with untreated trauma.

• If you’re in Parliament: Fund early, sustained intervention – not just late punishment.

• If you’re a citizen: Demand better. Talk about brain health. Support policies that prioritize prevention.

We can raise a generation with healthier brains, stronger hearts, and a better chance at peace. That is the Jamaica we all deserve.

Dr Earl Wright is consultant psychiatrist and chair, Mental Health Technical Advisory Group. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com