(Jamaica Gleaner) Prime Minister Andrew Holness has reported that 20 people were murdered in the first seven days of 2019.
This is 25 fewer than the 45 homicides recorded in the first seven days of 2018.
Holness, quoting police statistics, said eleven of the murders so far recorded, happened in Kingston and St Andrew.
A total of 1,287 persons were killed in Jamaica last year, a 21 per cent decrease when compared with 2017.
Holness revealed that the 1,287 murders recorded last year leave Jamaica with a homicide rate of approximately 47 per 100,000.
“This is almost three times higher than the average for Latin America and the Caribbean, which has the highest homicide rate globally of 16 per 100,000 of population,” he said during a statement to the House of Representatives.
