Government should reconfigure the zone of special operations (ZOSO) programme to focus on territorial control rather than social persuasion.

This was among a set of recommendations made by Caribbean Policy Research Institute (CAPRI) in its latest report “Groundwork for Peace; Reorienting ZOSOs for Sustained Violence Reduction.”

CAPRI lead researcher Alexander Causwell outlined some challenges with the current ZOSO system, including the fact that the ‘change hearts and minds’ approach does not work effectively in tackling crime and violence.

He cited situations in other countries, such as Brazil and Haiti, where this approach was taken to little or no effect because the gangsters always returned to the affected communities and resumed criminal activity.

Causwell suggested that government instead focus on what he called territorial control, which includes formalizing land tenure in informal communities.

Mr. Causwell also noted that the government needs to de-prioritize social intervention aimed at behavior modification.