ABSTRACT
The discussion of crime, identity, and community in the Caribbean is framed in a post-colonial discourse that draws identity information from the supranational as much as the local levels. These sources of identity information are laden with paradoxes and pluralities that create strong cues of othering and in-group separatism. The problem of structural violence (from a criminal justice system that was state protected) and interpersonal violence (experienced as the communities tried to resolve its problems) is exacerbated by the existence of weak state apparatus, that could not effectively develop responsive institutions to generate and redistribute opportunities in an effective manner. This chapter unpacks the nexus between social identity processes and crime in two communities in Kingston, Jamaica. The study postulates an approach that is grounded at the meso level of analysis where identity is negotiated and relationships are concretised. The paper attempts to contribute to a sociology that facilitates self-discovery and starts a debate concerning an emancipatory sociology, and by extension, criminology. This approach also facilitates an engagement of the historical processes but moves the existential debate into the moment where the agentic actor recognises his/her role in the replication of accepted and internalised norms that produce crime.
