H. Res. 865 
In the House of Representatives, U. S., 
April 9, 2008. 
Whereas, in his 2006 New Year’s address, then Prime Min-
ister of Jamaica, P.J. Patterson, said, ‘‘Without a doubt, 
the high level of violent crime remains our most troubling 
and pressing problem.’’; 
Whereas, in opening the Parliament of Trinidad and Tobago 
in September 2005, President George Maxwell Richards 
said his country was in crisis due to the escalating crime 
rate; 
Whereas, in March 2007, the United Nations Office on 
Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the International Bank 
for Reconstruction and Development (World Bank) 
issued a report entitled, ‘‘Crime, Violence, and Develop-
ment: Trends, Costs, and Policy Options in the Carib-
bean’’; 
Whereas the UNODC and World Bank report presents de-
tailed analyses of crime and violence in the Caribbean re-
gion and offers possible policy responses; 
Whereas the UNODC and World Bank report draws on input 
from governments, civil society organizations, and Carib-
bean experts; 
Whereas the UNODC and World Bank report that the Carib-
bean region has the highest murder and assault rates in
•HRES 865 EH 
the world, with murder rates at 4 times the level of the 
United States; 
Whereas the UNODC and World Bank report that high 
crime levels have long term developmental effects on the 
Caribbean— 
(1) 
crime 
cost 
the 
Jamaican 
economy 
$12,400,000,000 in Jamaican dollars, 3.7 percent of its 
gross domestic product, in 2001; and 
(2) reducing the region-wide homicide rate by 1⁄3 
could over double the rate of economic growth per capita; 
and 
Whereas the UNODC and World Bank report reached the 
following conclusions— 
(1) Caribbean countries are transit points and not 
producers of cocaine. Interdiction needs to be com-
plemented by other strategies outside the region: prin-
cipally demand reduction in consumer countries and 
eradication and/or alternative development in producer 
countries; 
(2) illegal gun trafficking is a dangerous outgrowth 
of the drug trade. Better enforcement methods help, as 
can improved gun interdiction in ports; 
(3) deaths and injuries from youth violence con-
stitute a major threat to public health and social and eco-
nomic progress across the Caribbean. Youth are dis-
proportionately represented in the ranks of both victims 
and perpetrators of crime and violence; 
(4) although the average deportee from the United 
States to the Caribbean is not involved in criminal activ-
ity, a minority of deportees may be causing serious prob-
lems, both by direct involvement in crime and by pro-
viding a perverse role model for youth. The report rec-
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ommends that more services be offered to reintegrate de-
portees, with deporting countries contributing to the cost 
of these programs; 
(5) some types of crime, such as organized crime 
and drug and illegal firearms trafficking, are impervious 
to alternative prevention initiatives and require an effi-
cient criminal justice system, and therefore urgent prior-
ities for improving the criminal justice system in the re-
gion include the development of management information 
systems, tracking of justice system performance, moni-
toring of reform programs, and increased accountability 
to citizens; 
(6) several Caribbean countries are increasingly in-
vesting in crime prevention—using approaches such as 
integrated citizen security programs, crime prevention 
through environmental design, and a public health ap-
proach that focuses on risk factors for violent behaviors; 
(7) youth violence is a particularly serious problem 
in the region, and youth homicide rates in several coun-
tries of the region are significantly above the world aver-
age. To address issues of youth violence, Caribbean pol-
icymakers should invest in programs that have been 
shown to be successful in careful evaluations such as: (i) 
early childhood development and mentoring programs; (ii) 
interventions to keep high risk youth in secondary 
schools; and (iii) opening schools after hours and on 
weekends to offer additional activities and training; and 
(8) many of the issues facing the Caribbean tran-
scend national boundaries and require a coordinated re-
gional and international response. Demand for drugs 
emanates from Europe and the United States; deportees 
are sent back to the region from the United States, the 
United Kingdom, and Canada; and many weapons that
•HRES 865 EH 
are trafficked are brought from the United States: Now, 
therefore, be it 
Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 
(1) welcomes the recommendations for more effec-
tive law enforcement and crime prevention efforts con-
tained in the March 2007 UNODC and World Bank re-
port, ‘‘Crime, Violence, and Development: Trends, Costs, 
and Policy Options in the Caribbean’’, to the extent 
those recommendations do not conflict with existing U.S. 
law; 
(2) urges the United States Government to consider 
fully and carefully the recommendations in the UNODC 
and World Bank Report and to take the recommenda-
tions into account when developing United States policy 
toward the current member states of the Caribbean 
Community (CARICOM) and the Dominican Republic; 
(3) urges the governments of United States and 
other drug-consuming countries to increase counter-nar-
cotics assistance to the current member states of 
CARICOM and the Dominican Republic; 
(4) urges the United States Government to increase 
coordination on policy development and implementation 
with the current member states of CARICOM and the 
Dominican Republic to help combat crime and violence 
in the region;
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(5) urges the Department of State and the Depart-
ment of Homeland Security to work with the current 
member states of CARICOM and the Dominican Repub-
lic to mitigate the negative effects of United States de-
portation policy; 
(6) urges the current member states of CARICOM 
and the Dominican Republic to consider fully and care-
fully the recommendations in the UNODC and World 
Bank Report, and to take the recommendations into ac-
count, especially regarding improvements in their crimi-
nal justice systems; and 
(7) urges the United States Government to consider 
the impact on the current member states of CARICOM 
and the Dominican Republic of the proposed Merida Ini-
tiative to combat drugs, violence, and transnational 
crime in Mexico and Central America, especially whether 
a successful plan will drive narco-traffickers from Mexico 
and Central America to the current member states of 
CARICOM or the Dominican Republic. 
Attest: 
Clerk.