1,114 murders reported so far this year, down 18% compared with 2023
Published:Monday | December 16, 2024 | 12:00 PM
Jamaica recorded 54 murders in the first two weeks of December, with 25 in the first week and 29 in the second.
After 50 weeks in 2024, an average of 22 murders were committed weekly.
According to the latest serious crime statistics released by the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) this morning, the country's murder toll as at December 14 was 1,114.
This is 238 fewer or an 18 per cent decline when compared with the similar period last year.
Included in the latest murder figures is last week's double murder of teenage boys, 14-year-old Jumaane Henry and 16-year-old Niquan Whitely.
The boys were gunned down execution style along Airy Castle Road in Stony Hill, St Andrew.
St James, with 123 murders, tops the divisions with the most homicides followed by St Andrew South with 116.
Westmoreland, 97; St Catherine North, 92; and St Catherine South, 81; round out the top five with 16 days left in 2024.
Portland has the fewest with 13 murders.
Overall, 15 of the 19 police divisions have recorded a decline in murders.
Shootings, injured persons, rapes, robberies and break-ins have declined year on year.
- Andre Williams
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