KINGSTON, Jamaica, Friday October 7, 2011 - Jamaica is reporting a 40 percent drop in homicides over the past 15 months, but Prime Minister Bruce Golding said crime is still at an unacceptable level.
He said 276 less homicides have been committed for the year, from the 1,097 that occurred last year. This, he stated, is also less than what was reported in 2009.
Golding commended the security forces for their “outstanding work.”
“While we embrace this success, let us be mindful that the crime rate still remains at an unacceptable level and we must not in any way reduce our efforts," he said in a statement.
“I urge your members to not let their feet falter, but to keep them firmly planted as we strive together to achieve the vision that we share for Jamaica- a country where sanctity and security are restored and our people enjoy peace and order."
On the heels of that announcement came a United Nations report that cited Jamaica as having had the highest homicide rate in the English-speaking Caribbean last year.
The 2011 Global Study on Homicide said this stood at 52.1.
“In Jamaica, for example, a country with a generally high homicide rate and a high level of violence, some of the increases in homicide levels occurred during the economic crisis,” the report by the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime stated.
St Kitts and Nevis was next in line at 38.2, ahead of Trinidad and Tobago’s 35.2.
The Bahamas was at 28.0, St. Lucia’s at 25.2, Dominican Republic at 24.9, and Dominica at 22.1.
The lowest murder rates in the region in 2010 were in Antigua and Barbuda at 6.8 and Haiti at a 6.9.
The report said the homicide rate in the Central America and the Caribbean is nearing “crisis point” having increased steadily over the past 15 years, while it has declined in Asia, Europe and Northern America.
