Over 1/4 of world’s murders happen in Caribbean

| 09/02/2012

_DEW8636-cns.jpg(CNS): A new report published by the United Nations Development Programme reveals that crime has become the main challenge threatening economies and livelihoods in Caribbean countries. The Caribbean Human Development Report 2012 says that the violence erodes the very foundation of the democratic processes in the region and imposes high social, economic and cultural costs. Although home to only 8.5 percent of the world’s population, the region has 27 percent of the world’s homicides. The report reveals that Jamaica still has the Caribbean’s highest murder rate despite a fall in the number of killings in 2011 to a seven-year low. (Photo Dennie Warren Jr)

El Salvador and Honduras are the only countries in the world to have higher murder rates in than Jamaica, while the report reveals that in Trinidad, the murder rate has increased five-fold over the last decade. The total cost of gang-related crime on the regional economy is between 2.8 percent and 4 percent of GDP.

The UN report surveyed 11,555 citizens in seven countries: Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, St Lucia, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago.
“Violence limits people’s choices, threatens their physical integrity, and disrupts their daily lives,” said UNDP Administrator Helen Clark at the report’s launch Trinidad this week.

“The report stresses the need to rethink our approaches to tackling crime and violence and providing security on the ground. This report stresses the need to rethink our approaches to tackling crime and violence and providing security on the ground. We need to follow approaches that are centered on citizen security and address the causes of this recent increase in violent crime, including social, economic, and political exclusion,” Clark added.

The report does make a number of recommendations about how high rates of violent crime can be turned around by achieving a better balance between legitimate law enforcement and preventive measures and a stronger focus on prevention. It also recommends that governments create or invest more to address gender-based violence and adopt more preventive measures to ensure that violence against girls and women is no longer tolerated.

See full report here

 

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Category: World News

About the Author ()

Comments (59)

Trackback URL | Comments RSS Feed

  1. Anonymous says:

    While it is a little concerning that CNS would post such a misleading title and article it is much more concerning that having had the the facts brought to light it has not seen fit to correct the article in any way. It would appear that this was a calculated 'error'.    

  2. Anonymous says:

    If human rights will allow it question those causing trouble and see what the majority will tell you about there family relations and experience. bet it will show why sociaty is deteriating

    and why pot smoking idols are accepted as something good to emulate >>> accepted. 

  3. Anon 1.0 says:

    Most murder stats are done PER CAPITA. So, then this report would be correct with what the UN claims. If it wasn't done PC, then this is blatantly bull.

     

    If only this article title and the content wasn't so misleading and missing blind spots.

    • Anonymous says:

      I agree with your 2nd para. Couldn't understand what you were saying in the first.

  4. Michael says:

    CNS, this is a report dealing with INVESTIGATED HOMICIDES only, not the murders that you are seeing in the Middle East every day like in Syria, Egypt, and Iran. There are more murders that are NOT INVESTIGATED over there than they are murders investigated here. Note:  You should have clarified in your article that this report is talking about MURDERS that have been registered as cases investigated!  In the Middle East and other places around the world, there are murders that are not registered. Hence, this Report is MISLEADING!   

  5. Anonymous says:

    You don't have to be surrounded by the Carribbean to be part of this discussion. Venezuela, Columbia, Panama, Guyanna, Belize, Honduras, Guatemala are murderous places and they border the Carribbean. Fact is they all have more coastline than Cayman and a lot more impact on the Carribbean than Cayman. It's obviously much better in Cayman, but face it, you're in a bad neighborhood. You're fortunate those people can't walk to your island.  Keep the Brits around until you have your own army.

  6. Just Wondering says:

    We native caymanians are to blame for what has happened to our country.  We should never have allowed the so many wrongs that have been done to this country to have happened.  We are too passive, and unfortunately now we are outnumbered and have been silenced,  It is so very sad to see this little piece of heaven turned into a hell on earth. 

    Those expats that have landed on our shores from various third world countries are not all to blame you have some from America, Europe, and a few other countries have also countributed to the down fall of this country. 

    A few comments posted here states that the "fatherless" children, are those who are out there committing these crimes, you are so very wrong on this matter, there are children who have both mother and father out there who are commiting these crimes as well as the single parent children. 

    Sterotyping social classes is where this all starts because these children are treated like social outcast because the single parent can't afford to "keep up to the times" clothing trends, having funds to give their kids money so they can socaillize, and you know if there were actual entry level jobs that these kids could get (when they graduate/weekend jobs)to earn their own money that would have eliminated some of this kids going to selling and using drugs.

    Just this evening i saw a Philipino man sweeping the parking lot of Kirks, a broom and dust bin, something as simple as this a young caymanian could do, and i'll say this much to the young caymanians, you all may feel that this is below you,  but an honest dollar is an honest dollar, it's yours at the end of the day, your forefathers and mothers worked harder than this and made way less than what you would collect for such a minial job, you all need to get off you high horses and take whatever you can get until you reach where you want to be.      

    The self entitlement mentality has to stop,  we need to take our country back to where we were before Caymanians were well known for being some of the hardest working people in the world, we had perserverance, determination, and most of honesty and integrity, we need to regain that within our country again, we were worked so hard as children that we as parents let our children get a away with everything because we can remember how as the sun rose we were up and working, and after school you came home and worked some more,  parents please remember that hard work never killed anyone.  The devil will find use for idle hands. 

     

     

    • Anonymous says:

      "Just this evening i saw a Philipino man sweeping the parking lot of Kirk"

      If you think they can survive on the island getting paid what this man does, than good luck.  Cost of living a several times higher here than in the phillipines, and he probably shares a room with several people.  The man your talking about could even be saving up to buy land back in the phillipines or supporting several family members.  Could a Caymanian/British/Canadian do that working the same job?

      There is different utility a caymanian would get from the same wage than a phillipino.  The phillipino is getting paid more than the Caymanian for the same wage.  They work harder because the return is greater.

      Saying a local person is lazy because he doesn't want to do the same job as a phillipino for the same wage is complete idiocy.  This idea is repeated around the world in developed countries for the same reason.  Irish people are lazy, English people are lazy, etc. etc. even jamaicans in Jamaica are lazy apparently.  Wages are subjective.

      • Anonymous says:

        nonsense…. how can a wage of $800 per month be better than $0 per month……

        back in the uk ..people are fighting over basic supermarket jobs…

      • Just Wondering says:

        Please re-read the Post!!! A teenager just out of school yes they could meet some of their own cost of living exspenses. 

        An  adult has more responsibilities than the younger men unless they too have already started a family too.    

      • Anonymous says:

        This is just stupid. The Philipino man lives in Cayman and obviously eats and sleeps somewhere here. You say he makes enough to send money home or save for land, so you clearly think he has a surplus after he pays for his food and room.

        The sophistry in your argument lies in the assumed premise that Caymanians deserve better than to share a room with several people and live off the wages that the Philipino man makes. You say those wages are so low they are of no utility to a Caymanian, but that presumes the hypothetical Caymanian can’t stoop to live off of that level of income. Next you will say that the Caymanian has no choice but to pick up a gun and rob people to preserve his “right” to a much better standard of living.

        I reject your assumptions. Caymanians deserve what they can honestly earn and not a single thing more. People around the world (myself, an attorney, included) start in the work force pushing a broom or something equally unskilled, and work up from there. Pushing a broom and swinging a hammer are great motivators for increasing one’s skills so as to honestly earn a promotion in life to a better job. You don’t want to start at the bottom, because you seem to think you deserve better already. You are wrong. Your inflated image of yourself is remarkable.

    • Anonymous says:

      Generally the two murder hot spots in Cayman I believe are Jamaica and Bahamas. Most of the Caribbean is relatively crime free. While Caymans crime has increased it is based more in averges to our population.

      Either way the BBC produced an article earlier this year that said that the murder capital of the world is now La Ciaba Honduras. Now they add Salvador also as having a higher murder rate. Is it possible that they may have included at least Honduras in the with the Caribbean because there are those that believe that Honduras is Caribbean. I always though it was central America.

      Also they say that Jamaicas rate 27% of all the worlds murders. Fine but there is not much added to it so it is dificult for me to believe that the precentage will only come down by 2% when you look at the other countries.

      • Anonymous says:

        You should read the source report and a number of posts on here that explain that the article is inaccurate. That 27% relates to South America, Central America and the Caribbean combined as one region.

        Trinidad's murder rate is higher than the Bahamas. 

        • Anonymous says:

          So anon 1458 you read the article and I did not.

          27% relates to South America, Central America and the Caribbean combined as one region.

          But 1 out of 4 or 25% belongs to the Caribbean.

          So if 25% plus the central America group must equal 27% so central America equals roughly 2%

          At the same time 2 countries in Central America Salvador and Honduras are higher than Jamaica.

          My maths may be messed up at times but you talk like a politician.

          The stats are a joke.
           

          • Anonymous says:

            I 'talk' like an intelligent person who has read the relevant portions of the report. If you do the same you won't write silly posts like this.  Don't take newspaper headlines as gospel. "OVER 1/4" refers to the 27%. For the last time, the article is inaccurate in attributing "over 1/4 of murders" to the Caribbean.  

  7. Anonymous says:

    Do what we've done in Cayman and ask them all to move to West Bay!  Then at least they're only bothering themselves.

  8. Anonymous says:

    Blame the ex-pats!  We did it!  We caused all of the problems, we didn't parent your children, we didn't study hard enough for you, we don't give you enough.  Look in the mirror…there in lies the problem!

  9. Anonymous says:

    10:22   

                you have a point!!         but it's like the chicken and egg.

    WITHOUT THE DEMAND THERE WILL BE NO SUPPLY

    HOWEVER,         NO,  supply/production   there will be no demand

     

    It all comes down to the MORALS  and   VALUES   we hold and live by

  10. Anonymous says:

    More BS from the UN.

    You can only calculate murder rates (or any crime rate for that matter) in countries where the infrastructure supports proper law enforcement with a valid reporting system and there are a heck of lot of places on this planet where that doesn't happen.

    One day, maybe the UN will actually do something worth reporting.

     

     

  11. Anonymous says:

    This is BS . They have not done studies in some African countries. But we dont see that on the news either.

    • Anonymous says:

      Escapism is the way of the fool when presented with a problem. Those are facts. UNDP does statistics for all member states, African, Carribean or Mongolian. Wake up and accept the reality son.

  12. Anonymous says:

    Legalize and tax and regulate drugs (regionally and eventually worldwide) and this violence would virtually disappear. 

    What else are the gangs fighting about?

    The same situation exisited when alcohol was probibited in the USA – out of control gangs and violence. 

    The demand is never going to go away. Same with the demand for alcohol. 

    Dont believe me, take it from Milton (Friedman):

    (google Milton Friedman – Why Drugs should be legalized – Youtube video.)

     

  13. Reality Check says:

    Perhaps the heading of this article should be changed to the factually accurate “approximately 0.1% of the world’s murders happen in Caribbean”. 

    Based on the attached report there were about 5,000 murders in the Caribbean and  there are approximately half a million murders globally. 

    • Reality Check says:

      Obviously there are two Reality Checks.  I woke up this morning and thought "Did I post this?".  "How much rum did I drink last night".  "Was my maths that bad?"  but then I started wondering if this was the real Reality Check and I am living in a dream.  I started worrying about whether the Matrix was true, that maybe there is a paralllel universe where 1% is actually 0.1%.  I tried running up a wall to see if I was the new Neo.  I fell down.  It was sore.  I am confused.  But in a Spartacus moment "I am Reality Check".

      • The Real Reality Check (really you can check) says:

        Yup it should be 1% of the World's murders are comitted in the Caribbean.  Yay Caribbean!  I was off by just under 1% in my estimate but the heading of the article was off by much more.

        Thanks for the check and the correction.  However dont make a habit of questioning reality as it can only lead to insanity.

      • Anonymous says:

        he's been to the ezzard miller school of mathematics…..

  14. Reality Check says:

    This article is extremely misleading as is the underlying report. The organization behind the report was trying to massage facts to highlight the very real problem of crime in the Caribbean. The CNS article then skims this report and doesn’t paint the correct picture. I will try to put it into perspective…

     

    First, the Caribbean is not home to 8.7% of the world’s population. The Caribbean has approximately 42 million people so we have 0.6% of the 7 billion people on the planet. For this catchy sound bite the report uses statistics based on the ENTIRE Latin American region. To get to the 8.7% of the earth's population referenced you need to add every country in Central and South America. When I tell you that Central America, South America and the Caribbean in total combined for 27% of the world’s murders it doesn’t sound so scary right.

     

    The report then pulls another statistical sleight of hand by switching from the actual NUMBER of murders to discussing RATES of murder per capita. It tries to imply Jamaica was the largest contributor to the number of murders in the region and thus is the prime force behind the 27% figure.  However this falls flat when you do some quick math.

    Jamaica’s population is about 2.7 million people.  They do have a very high murder rate of 50 people per 100,000.  This means that approximately 1,350 people are killed in Jamaica each year.

    According to Wikipedia there were about 525,000 murders in 2010.  That figure is a little low because many countries don’t have an infrastructure to keep track of such figures.  The broader Caribbean and Latin American region was thus responsible for 27% of this figure or about 142,000 murders. 

     

    From this you can see that despite the tone of the report Jamaica, our worst Caribbean offender with the highest crime rate in the region, contributed less than 1% of the region’s murders.  Most of the murders in the region were obviously committed in the larger countries such as Brazil and Mexico. 

    The study also fails to review or analyze the three largest countries in the Caribbean by population.  Cuba, Haiti and the Dominican Republic comprise over 75% of the total population in the Caribbean and were completely ignored in the report.  The fact that this study only chose to focus on a small slice of the region further dilutes any points they were trying to make.

     

    I think we can all agree that murder is bad and one murder is one too many.  But can we also agree that deliberately manipulating statistics to further an agenda is also a bad thing.

    • Anonymous says:

      Correct on the article but nt the report. The report talks of Latin America. Hence the report is 100% correct

      • Reality Check? says:

        Actually the report focuses on just the Caribbean and even ignores the three largest member countries.  The only place Latin America is mentioned is in the preamble and it was obviously done to attach the headline grabbing 27% figure to the more benign results in the report.  A responsible report would then have made it clear what role the Caribbean had to play in creating that statistic. 

        The way it is right now leaves it open to misinterpretation and creates the possibility that less than thorough journalists would write headlines that grossly misrepresent the facts and paint the region in an unnecessarily poor light.

  15. Rickie Tatum says:

    The level of crime in cayman is TINY compared to most other countries in the carribean, alot of other countries WISH their crime rate was anything similar to Cayman's. I agree the amount of crime in cayman is shocking but realistically and collectively our country is still relitively one of the safest countries in the carribean.

     

  16. Francois Coutu says:

    Your headline has misquoted the statistic about murders.  To be accurate, it should read as following:

    Over 1/4 of world's murders happen in Latin merica and the Caribbean

     

  17. Anonymous says:

    The headline of this article is inaccurate and misleading according to the report on which it is based. It is obviously incorrect given that the Caribbean has a much smaller share of the world's population than 8.5%. Here is a quote from the foreword to the report: "The increase in violence and crime in LATIN AMERICA and the Caribbean is an undeniable fact that erodes the very foundation of the democratic processes in the region and imposes high social, economic and cultural costs. Our region is home to 8.5% of the world's population, yet i concentrates some 27% of the world's homicides…Broadly speaking there are high and low crime countries within the region, and differences exist even within each of the sub-regions (South America, Central America and the Caribbean)".

    That is not to say that we don't have a serious problem with murders in the Caribbean but please don't exaggerate the problem. If I didn't know better I might think that you would like to kill off our tourism altogether.

    More responsible journalism, please.     

     

  18. Whodatis says:

    "Unfortunately, this article fails to include the all important "WHY" factor.
    It is not very surprising that much crime takes place in the region that is home to the first step in the cultivation / manufacturing / processing / distribution phase of what are perhaps the most sought after units of tangible economic production in the world … "illegal" drugs.
    Interestingly, the end users and majority consumers (economically and bodily) of said "illegal" substances are residents of the larger nations which include the USA, Canada, England, "London" (deserves a unique mention because OMG!) Scotland, Ireland, Wales, Germany, Spain, France, Switzerland, Italy etc.
    In no way am I defending what takes place regionally, but to discuss the symptoms of a sickness without a mention of the actual cause is quite ridiculous in my opinion.
    Until the demand for these substances is reduced in the aforementioned larger countries and or the laws that prohibit them are modified we will continue to see this culture of (economic) violence within our region."

    Regards,

    Whodatis

    • Alan Nivia says:

      Yes it is the Welsh smack users that are to blame for Caribbean lawlessness.  What about the poor moral fibre of the criminals?

    • Anonymous says:

      I do agree, Whodatis, but it still begs the question:  Why is our murder rate statistically so much higher when at least part of the processing and distribution phase happens in those western countries?  There are no shortage of gang-related power struggles in the US and Britain, for example.  Thoughts?

    • Anon says:

      Either you are posting purely for entertainment, or, if you truly believe the things you say, you are a severely disturbed individual. If it's the former, the joke was stale months ago. if it's the latter, get some therapy.

    • Anonymous says:

      Why is there a higher murder rate in the places that produce drugs than the places that use them, one would ask? Perhaps it is something in addition to the drugs.

    • Anonymous says:

      and another 1/4 to 1/2 of the murders that occur in the rest of the world are committed by those from the Caribbean…

      • Anonymous says:

        It is exactly this sort of ignorance and hatred that this sort of article brings out.

    • Anonymous says:

      Making excuses is not the answer.

      Alcohol and drug addiction as well as lack of parenting and education are major contributing factors.  The Caribbean mentality of serial adultry as being the norm is a huge problem as well.

       

    • Anonymous says:

      just take responsabily for your actions and let others take resposability for theirs.

      • Anonymous says:

        How can they when the same word is not spelt correctly and then not spelt correctly twice…..

  19. Anonymous says:

    The report does make a number of recommendations about how high rates of violent crime can be turned around by achieving a better balance between legitimate law enforcement and preventive measures and a stronger focuson prevention.

     

    Answer to your question, "who can we blame?"

    That's the question that has always and ever being asked in Cayman ?

    Not the question, "what can we do about it"?

    Read the above quote from the article and see where solving the problem is more important than placing blame…things have gone bad already…no amount of 'blaming anyone' will help to correct the situation….

    Or at least do as much as possible to stop it from getting worse.

  20. Simple days says:

    Looks like Cayman not out of this race either unfortunately…Not to be left out of this horse and pony show, cayman is slowly pulling up in the straights and the crowd 'looks' wild

    Gun Crimes/ Robbery of 2012

    1.      January 6th 9:50pm           Pizza delivery man robbed

    2.      January 9th 8:30pm           Gunmen rob GT pharmacy

    3.      January 15th 2:06am         Man robbed of cash bag outside own home

    4.      January 15th 6:53pm         Robbers hit West Bay house

    5.      January 17th 7:25pm          Robbers in 3rd doorstep heist

    6.      January 20th 2:30pm         Man shot near Countryside plaza

    7.      January 22nd 4:30am        Cops house shot up in WB

    8.      January 25th 9:30pm         Pizza-man escapes gunman in foiled robbery

    9.      January 31st 3:55am         Early morning robbery

    10.  February 2nd 2:30am         Armed burglary terror

    11.  February 7th 12:30am       Robbers take cash and car

     

     

     Robberies/Break-in of 2012

    1.      January 13th 5:15am         Masked men break into George Town gas station

    2.      January 19th 7:05am         Woman threatened and mugged on Eden Road

     

    Murders of 2012

     

    Convictions in 2012

    1.      January 20th                      CJ finds Anglin guilty

    2.      January 23rd                     Mother sent to jail over bank theft

    3.      February 1st                      Gas station robber gets 12 yrs

     

     

     

     

     

     

     
    • WaltonZ says:

      I tell this to people all the time, in my 40 odd years, since hurricane Ivan and the unilateral agreement between McKeeva, Kurt, and other politicians to start a two-party system in the Cayman Islands like you would have in Jamaica, from 2004, I have never seen so much people out of work and so much crime in the Cayman Islands!!!  Do parties have an influence on the level of crime?  The more the years roll, I am more and more believing that it does!

      • Mike Litoris says:

        You are right WaltonZ.  Everyone should stop partying and get a job.

    • Anonymous says:

      Dear Simple Daze, You appear to get some thrill from updating your diary of crimes. I am not impressed,  maybe you could publish it less often. Thank you

      • Simple days says:

        Dear Friend,

         

        I get no thrill from reading about crime commented in Cayman against the innocent so to make that accusation is simply irresponsible.

         

        The updates act as a reminder to the people of Cayman because FAR too often we as a people FORGET and write off these types of events and start to accept these events as the 'norm'. When clearly it is a GROWING PROBLEM which will affect everyone and will require everyone to do their part…

         

        Finally, am so sorry that you were not impressed, after all, I especially set out every day to update Crimes that are committed in Cayman for YOUR approval… Gosh darn it oh what shall I do…!

         

        Simple Days

  21. Anonymous says:

    all because of a lack of morals and fatherless children.

    heroes are performers of gangster music and pot smoking idols

    this is why the good people are suffering for the guilty

    • Profound Reality! says:

      No morals

      Fatherless Children

      Gangster Music

      Pot Smoking Idols

      Well Im happy we sorted this social problem, except for the fact that the caribbean region also boast some of the highest rates of under-educated persons(High School Degree and below) per captia in the world. With slim chances of securing a job worth the time, a few turn to crime, brillantly ,even those convicted of  minor crimes can be linked to boredom and  slim education.With these odds, and the fertility rate as high as it is, one can imagine the amount of blind sided parents promoting ignorance, trauma and poor judgment to their wee ones.Religion is another variable that's "hot" in the caribbean teaching ironically enough love ,however we only tend to see judgment, bias and hate towards one another in the name of the father. I give you 1 out of 4 as "lack of morals" is the only reason you mentoined that can be proven to be linked to social dispair, I ask  you though, what remedy of morals are you serving?

      BTW: I grew up fatherless, listening to Tu-Pac and appreciating the take on life of a "Pot Smoking Idol" ,as for morals I have never commited a criminal offence besides a few traffic violations.

      We as a people are cruel, greedy and very 'narrow minded'. Sorry,I have no solution besides the knowledge that one day this breed representing our region will go the way of the dodo bird.

       

    • Anonymous says:

      Don't give the excuse fatherless children…..they have choices…take a great example:  Barak Obama!!!!! Single mom, wait, single white mom raising a mixed raced child in the 50's and 60's…oh yeah she had it real easy…..

      • Anonymous says:

        Please give any example but Nobama.  We have good examples here in the Cayman Islands.  Why does it have to be an outsider and him?

  22. Anonymous says:

    Who can we blame?

    • You Down Wid UDP? says:

      PPM!

    • Castor says:

      We surely can't blame the God fearing, upright moral citizens of the country, can we? You know the ones, those who assist the police, come forth with information on those who they know are commiting crime, no not those people. Oh dang, it's those foreigners again.

      • Anonymous says:

        Again is say… Relax! You’re sounding vicious. You don’t want to sound vicious do you?

    • Anonymous says:

      The culture.

    • Anonymous says:

      Just the ex-pats really!

      • Anonymous says:

        yes…keep rolling over the most educated law abiding citizens!!!!