Ja­maica record­ed its blood­i­est sev­en days of the year last week, when 44 mur­ders were record­ed, ac­cord­ing to fig­ures re­leased by the Ja­maica Con­stab­u­lary Force (JCF).

The JCF state­ment said that as at No­vem­ber 23, the coun­try’s mur­der toll stood at 1,039—up from the 995 mur­ders that had been record­ed as at No­vem­ber 16.

But de­spite the in­crease, the JCF said that the year-on-year mur­der de­cline has dipped two per­cent­age points to 18 per cent.

Ac­cord­ing to the JCF fig­ures, two of the 19 po­lice di­vi­sions have record­ed over 100 mur­ders so far this year: with at St James,117, and St An­drew South at 107.

The fig­ures show that West­more­land, 94; St Cather­ine North, 86; and St Cather­ine South, 74, round out the top five mur­der­ous po­lice di­vi­sions.

The JCF said that five of the 19 po­lice di­vi­sions have record­ed a de­cline in mur­ders over last year and that shoot­ings, in­jured per­sons, rape, rob­bery and break-ins are down com­pared with the cor­re­spond­ing pe­ri­od of last year. —KINGSTON, Ja­maica (CMC)