JCF responds to 'flawed study' claims

Norman Heywood, Guest Columnist

The Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) notes the debate generated following the publication of its study titled 'Education and Crime: Evidence from Prison Inmates in Jamaica'. Several public affairs analysts, stakeholders in the education sector and academics have voiced opinions about various issues in relation to the survey research. One such group is the group of six academics from the Department of Sociology, Psychology and Social Work at the University of the West Indies, Mona, who contributed articles to both major newspapers on Monday, January 27, 2014.

First, the JCF would like to point out that the study was conducted with the primary aim of informing intervention strategies in schools through its school resource officer (SRO) programme. In other words, the study was conducted to address specific, practical questions.

As far as the JCF is concerned, the questions to be answered were whether some schools featured more frequently than others in the prison sample and, if so, whether the frequency levels are significant enough to be cause for concern. The schools so determined would then be targeted with a specially crafted SRO programme.

Second, validity means that the correct steps and procedures have been applied in finding answers to questions. The most critical issue for a simple descriptive research such as this study is the matter of generating a genuine random sample. Therefore, with random sampling being the foundation on which this study rests, the research team ensured that the correct procedures were followed. Let us therefore carefully outline the steps taken:

1. Sampling frames with the names of the 3,310 inmates making up the entire prison population across the six institutions were generated. A breakdown of the population by institution is as follows:

SS Tower Street Adult Correctional Centre (1,466)

SS St Catherine Adult Correctional Centre (1,061)

SS South Camp Adult Correctional Centre (226)

SS Tamarind Farm Adult Correctional Centre (207)

SS Fort Augusta Adult Correctional Centre (149)

SS Richmond Farm Adult Correctional Centre (201)

2. A proportional sample of 894 inmates based on institution was selected using a randomiser tool and which produced a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

3. The lists of names of inmates selected in the sample were given to the interviewers.

It must be noted that none of the research questions in the study referred to a relationship between any of the variables. Furthermore, the analysis of the findings was geared specifically towards answering the research questions. Therefore, the suggestion by the group that more "detailed statistical analysis would be required to establish the relationships being sought" is very much misplaced.

Nevertheless, we do understand the group's thirst for more information since we observe that the body of research conducted locally on this issue is as thin as paper, and so we humbly suggest that this group of eminent academics use their training to change that situation. For instance, the group could write some winning proposals to donor agencies seeking grants to fund research in their areas of interest.

study title overlooked

The academics questioned the length of time taken for the conduct of the interviews with inmates, and even suggested some more questions that the research team could have asked. Let us briefly educate the academics about prisoners based on our experience. They are not amenable to lengthy questioning. Additionally, we believe many persons, including the academics, have overlooked the title of the study which explicitly states that the findings as presented are gleaned from inmates.

In closing, we would like to state categorically that any intervention, whether by the JCF or the Ministry of Education, based on the schools named in the study is on secure foundation. Furthermore, we are absolutely confident that probability and statistical theories would ascribe very strong significance to any school that appears eight or more times in this sample, and hence warrant being highlighted in the study.

The primary focus of this applied research was to inform targeted interventions to schools, and we challenge any group to prove that this study is flawed in fulfilling that aim.

Norman Heywood is an assistant commissioner of police. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com.