Cedric Stephens | Cognitive behaviour therapy as a crime prevention tool

In the introduction to his 2009 GraceKennedy Lecture, ‘Controlling Violent Crimes: Models and Policy Options’, Professor Anthony D. Harriott argued that “in the liberal use of incarceration as simply the separation of convicts from the society without much thought to the conditions of the incarceration, may reinforce criminality by facilitating the transmission of the patterns of moral thinking that neutralise any societal disapprobation of their criminal careers”.

“It may also facilitate the transfer of technical know-how and expertise in crime. Excessive punishment and illegal crime control methods may affirm already existing views of the unjust nature of the criminal justice system, and justify non-cooperation with it as well as self-help alternatives to it,” he said.

The Inter-American Development Bank published a technical note about crime and violence in Jamaica seven years later. The co-authors were Anthony Harriott and Marlyn Jones. Both are professors at The University of the West Indies.

The note describes “the main victims and perpetrators” of violent crimes as “young males between the ages of 16 and 24”; also that “greater emphasis is needed on crime prevention. The Ministry of National Security has recognised the importance of crime prevention, but there does not seem to be the requisite financial outlays for these programmes”.

About 16.5 per cent or $99.4 billion of the allocations to ministries and departments in the government’s 2022/23 budget of $604.5 billion went to the national security ministry. It was not disclosed how much of that amount was earmarked for crime prevention.

Former Minister of National Security Robert Montague was quoted in this newspaper in 2017 as saying that the annual economic cost of crime was running at five per cent of GDP or $68 billion.

The occurrence of violent crimes is, predictably, a regular topic of conversation throughout the island. Strategies for dealing with this problem range from states of emergency, zones of special operations, the construction of a high-security prison, the enactment of new legislation, to the development and implementation of a crime plan. Often missing from these conversations are interventions to address the root cause: the thinking that contributes to these forms of anti-social behaviours.

My late wife, a psychologist, introduced me to cognitive behavioural therapy or CBT. It is a treatment approach that is used to help others recognise their negative or unhelpful thoughts and behaviours. When connections between thoughts, emotions, and actions are understood, this type of intervention can bring about permanent behavioural changes.

USAID, according to the Jamaica Information Service, says it, like the World Health Organization and others, recognises “the role of CBT as an effective intervention to help youth adopt new ways of thinking and improve their decision-making skills, resulting in changed behaviours”.

The minister of national security did not discuss CBT during his contribution to this year’s sectoral debate. However, according to an article published by American media company Vox, ‘A study gave cash and therapy to men at risk of criminal behaviour. 10 years later, the results are in’, on May 31, he should have. The bottom line: The Republic of Liberia, a country located in western Africa, 10 times the size of Jamaica, “found a stunningly effective way to reduce violent crimes that authorities in the US are now trying out”. CBT and cash giveaways are at the centre of that strategy.

Research conducted by Chris Blattman, Margaret Sheridan, Julian Jamison and Sebastian Chaskel, according to the article, found evidence that “offering at-risk men a few weeks of behavioural therapy plus a bit of cash reduces the future risk of crime and violence, even ten years after the intervention”.

“Blattman ran a big randomised controlled trial with 999 of the most dangerous men in Monrovia, recruited on the street. The 999 Liberian men were split into four groups. Some received CBT while others got $200 in cash. Another group got the CBT plus the cash, and, finally, there was a control group that got neither.

“A month after the intervention, both the therapy group and the therapy-plus-cash group were showing positive results. A year after the intervention, the positive effects on those who got therapy alone had faded a bit, but those who got therapy plus cash were still showing huge impacts: crime and violence were down about 50 per cent.

“Ten years later, Blattman tracked down the original men from the study and re-evaluated them. Amazingly, crime and violence were still down by about 50 per cent in the therapy-plus-cash group,” Vox reported.

Statistics recently disclosed by the commissioner of police, according to this newspaper, indicate that “major crimes dipped by 0.2 per cent”.

Given the ‘stunningly effective’ results that were achieved by Liberia involving the use of CBT for over a decade, shouldn’t the local authorities consider conducting an experiment funded by the Ministry of National Security and involving CBT in Jamaica?

- Cedric E. Stephens provides independent information and advice about the management of risks and insurance. For free information or counsel, write to: aegis@flowja.com or business@gleanerjm.com