Its gone past the CIA. Yeah they bhad /have a hand but the reason in my mind/ (sorry to sound like Pastor ) but its moral breakdown in the society. Government allow too much slackness. Compared to most countries in the so called 3rd world/ what Jamiaca allows in its popular media /TV/ radio is nothing short of madness. We seing bthat with youth sexualised from very young and the recent internet ****. JA **** videos are doing big business in Kingston. These are not your Nigerian heartbreak stories.. Common sense tells you that in a country where more people murder than in JA in 2 years than Northern Ireland over 30 years/ that you cant have gun tune on the airwaves.

Look over the last 10-15 years Mobay turn wicked/ May Pen run by extortion/ and no sensible person will start a cash heavy business in JA unless you like rolling with a gun.

I also think that you have to check that for a situation like that to fester for the last 10 years then alot of people within the country are benefiting from the slaughter otherwise it couldnt gwan so easy


Oh and dont think its just Jamaica either. The whole Caribbean is experiencing an increase in crime and callous killing. Check the online papers for St Lucia/Trinidad/ Antigua..similar problems/ worse than what they previously had.

The 3rd highiest crime rate in the world ! Lawd... that is pityful, seriously.... Jamaica is all KILL KILL KILL KILL.... that's some serious mental issues

I have to say there is SOME seriously stupid comments on this so called statistic....It would be interesting to know if ANY of the people commenting on this so call Jamaican 'mentality' have ever visited the place?

Your likely aiming this at me ... well sorry if I offend, didn't mean to, but please, give me reason or explain why such a SMALL AND TINY populated Island has the worlds 3rd highest crime rate.... that isn't healthy Kunjufu... I don't believe this statistic is so called either....... it's very evident. No other carribean Island is in line with Jamaica , but why is Jamaica having such heavy crime

Sorry no agenda here... But I do have grave concern for Jamaica......

Surprised Brazil isn't on the list... Haiti would be another. The list is for countries who aren't at war but there are others missing also.

***Don't think those stats are right B.P.... we're a leader of evil according to an article in the gleaner and that NationMaster site dosen't list JA and certain other countries on their stats... it also relies on wikipedia for its information...

Jamaica Gleaner News - 'Jamaica among the leaders of evil' - Saturday | May 10, 2008

NationMaster - Gun violence > Homicides > Overall homicide rate > per 100,000 pop. (most recent) by country

Know its bad but I'm suspicious about just how bad some like to say it is.

U.N Article on the topic...

http://www.unodc.org/pdf/research/Cr_and_Vio_Car_E.pdf

To be blunt my view is that it beholds us [Africans] to critque and properly examine so called facts, their source and their methodolgy.. what disappointed me is not only as someone who considers himself an African, but is also proud of his Jamaica pathway to that Africaness... Is that some people instead of exploring with an AFRICAN eye the subtext to these figures choose instead to repeat and reaffirm some of the negativity that is associated to certain countries without thought...

If people looked Objectively at ALL the countries listed in the original top 10 list of high homicide rate..the common denominator that has seriously been missed is that all these copuntrie has polar extremes in Wealth and poverty...and i suggest that if you compared them to countries on a like for like basis without these extremes it might just go some way to explaining WHY some countries have a high homicide rate and other virtually next door do not...

For example I visited T&T this year Trinidad has a homicide rate equal to JA...yet its twin island Tobago barely few miles of the coast of Trindad has a fraction.. [eg when i was there in Feb 08 the murder rate had passed 60 for the year... in comparison to Tobago which had 3 for the whole of 07] My question is why the difference in a country with the SAME government and economics? again T& T is less than 1 hours flight time from Barbados where i also visited and those two islands are like chalk and cheese..again you don't get the high levels of criminality in Barbados that you do in T&T why?

I can say that i honestly feel safer in JA & T&T than i do in London.... So when we talk about mentality lets get it into context..... as much as i acknowledge JA high murder rate at least it can be understood in the context of its socio economics and demographics....how do we explain the high youth crime in the UK, a country with a WELFARE benefits system, free education and no evidence of Absolute poverty of the type found in the countries in that top ten list.?

Some times people really ought to STOP questioning countries like JA from a western standpoint because it does NOT give one an accurate perspective on the issues?

So when we talk about mentality lets get it into context..... as much as i acknowledge JA high murder rate at least it can be understood in the context of its socio economics and demographics....how do we explain the high youth crime in the UK, a country with a WELFARE benefits system, free education and no evidence of Absolute poverty of the type found in the countries in that top ten list.?

Well said @K...to be honest you hear all sort of things about Nigeria too and people are like did you see or hear that its called preconditioning to be scared off your own and it filters through the way we treat and perceive each other ..fear first!!!!...
Those Stats do 2 things ...hold you in continual bondage here...and to highlight you better off than your cousins in Africa or the Caribbean...and guess what it works
Like you i feel much safer in Nigeria walking the streets at least if i'm not showing off after 10PM in a fancy ride...here at times during the day on the tube and rail one doesn't even feel safe..people can just kill for no reason..this reports are a fraud yes the numbers are scary but they make it sound like if you step into JA you would get cut just like that which is far from the truth..yes morally they might be on the slide but that is everywhere and i mean everywhere was out walking about 10pm on Sat and what some of this girls were wearing voluntarily was well shocking!!!...
Most of the problems the root cause is poverty related ...its the rich-almost rich and very poor as you said....In Africa you would never get someone who is in school well fed cutting people up and partaking in some gang bullshit...however in the UK and US some of them come from good families yet the sparks just go off...look at kids from Africa see what happens when they get here give and take a couple of years down the line they start having those random violent tendencies....
The Media are devils at their best...we Africans are always the most affected by all diseases and last in everything...Bloody hell!!! why do we even bother getting out of bed afterall they saying to us we are f**cked no matter what we do..... yet our people still keep listening and get suckered into all the bullsh*t..the number of times i've had to check old and young people to always see things from 2 sides theres no smoke without fire...our assumptions- ignorance and laziness to find the truth is truly profound

The above links seem to be dead but I found this

NationMaster - Murders (per capita) (most recent) by country

and the figures seem to match. But check out the comments

NationMaster - Murders (per capita) (most recent) by country

But look at the murders with firearms!!

NationMaster - Murders with firearms (most recent) by country

#1 South Africa: 31,918
#2 Colombia: 21,898
#3 Thailand: 20,032
#4 United States: 8,259
#5 Mexico: 3,589
#6 Zimbabwe: 598
#7 Germany: 384
#8 Belarus: 331
#9 Czech Republic: 213
#10 Ukraine: 173
#11 Poland: 166
#12 Canada: 165
#13 Costa Rica: 126
#14 Slovakia: 117
#15 Spain: 97
#16 Uruguay: 84
#17 Portugal: 84
#18 Lithuania: 83
#19 Bulgaria: 63
#20 United Kingdom: 62
#21 Australia: 59
#22 Hungary: 44
#23 Switzerland: 40
#24 Latvia: 30
#25 Macedonia, The Former Yugoslav Republic of: 26
#26 Estonia: 21
#27 Moldova: 20
#28 Azerbaijan: 18
#29 Denmark: 14
#30 Slovenia: 12
#31 Ireland: 12
#32 New Zealand: 7

Where's Jamaica gone? If they're not being murdered by firearms is it stabbings thats causing the murder rate to be so high?