According to the Director General, Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ), Dr. Gladstone Hutchinson, Jamaica spends approximately five to seven percent of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on fighting crime.
The shocking revelation is apparently the reason behind the PIOJ’s Community Renewal Programme (CRP), a private-sector initiative in crime sore communities (which apparently eats up the bulk of the 5-7 percent of GDP).
Dr. Hutchinson was speaking at the seventh Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE) investments and capital markets conference at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel, New Kingston, recently (January 2012).