CAPRI Commentaries

CAPRI’s 2020 landmark study on Jamaica’s violent gangs, Guns Out: The Splintering of Jamaica’s Gangs , repeated the commonly held premise that Jamaica suffers from a “culture of violence.” Ongoing work in the security field has since prompted a reexamination of that hypothesis. A closer examination of the available evidence yields no indication that a distinct cultural propensity is responsible for Jamaica’s high rates of violence, particularly with respect to homicides. Rather, it is the enabling environment produced by specific policy decisions of…

“I am Catholic but I have to legislate for everyone,” proclaimed then-candidate Alberto Fernandez, in his campaign promise to reintroduce a bill to legalize abortion in Argentina. After winning the presidency, he fulfilled his commitment, and Argentina legalized abortion up to 14 weeks gestation in 2020. President Fernandez’s distinguishing between his personal beliefs and what he recognized as the human costs associated with the abortion ban, highlights that supporting the legalization of abortion does not equate to being pro-abortion.

Banning abortion does not stop women from getting them. In Jamaica, abortion is currently…