....This report presents an overview of the history, prevalence, and distribution of gangs, focusing in particular on their involvement in international drug and arms trafficking and the possible influence of deportees from the United States. It finds that there is a dense social web connecting highly organized, transnational gangs to the loosely organized gangs whose activities are often indistinguishable from broader community and interpersonal violence. It finds that contemporary gangs in Jamaica have their roots in the organized political violence of the 1940s. Though the political facilitation of crime has declined since the country’s bloodiest national elections in 1980, it remains an enduring—though less overt—force. The persistent facilitation of gang activity by politicians continues to hinder targeted violence reduction efforts, despite the government’s vociferous public condemnation of crime and violence and official support of both punitive and social approaches to violence reduction....
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