Ja­maica record­ed 43 mur­ders dur­ing the first 18 days of 2025, one less than the com­par­a­tive pe­ri­od last year, ac­cord­ing to fig­ures re­leased by the Ja­maica Con­stab­u­lary Force (JCF).

The JCF said the mur­ders are a mi­nus 2.3 per cent low­er than last year and that while five parish­es have record­ed a 100 per cent mur­der rate, three oth­er parish­es reg­is­tered mur­der rates rang­ing from 200 to 700 per cent.

The JCF fig­ures show St. An­drew South led the way in mur­ders with 700 per cent af­ter eight peo­ple were killed dur­ing the first 18 days of this year as com­pared with one per­son in 2024.

St. An­drew Cen­tral reg­is­tered four mur­ders for a 300 per cent in­crease, while West­more­land, Hanover and St. James reg­is­tered one mur­der so far this year.

There al­so has been a 77.8 per cent de­cline in rapes with six cas­es this year as against 27 for the same pe­ri­od last year.

In 2024, Ja­maica record­ed a to­tal of 1,139 mur­ders, a 19 per cent de­cline when com­pared to the pre­vi­ous year (2023). —KINGSTON, Ja­maica (CMC)