Government intelligence suggests that there are 268 active gangs operating throughout the island, a five-fold increase in prevalence over estimates in 1998.
• Over the past decade, murders committed in Jamaica have almost doubled.
More than 13,000 people have been murdered since 2000.
• Gangs are accused of being responsible for as much as 80 per cent of all
major crimes in Jamaica.
• Over the last decade, gun-related murders have driven the increase in murder rates, accounting for 77 per cent of murders by 2009; variations in gun
murders account for almost all fluctuations in total murder rates.
• Most firearms seized in Jamaica are traced back to three US counties—
Orange, Dade, and Broward—in the state of Florida, all of which have large
Jamaican populations.
• The discovery in early 2010 of large amounts of illegal ammunition and
firearms—all originating from the police force’s central armoury—has conclusively linked security forces to the distribution of ammunition and weapons to criminals.
• Reductions in Jamaica’s violence will be short-lived unless the linkages
between politicians, organized crime, and gangs are severely eroded.
Structure and distributionIntelligence suggests that there are 268 active gangs in Jamaica, a five-fold
increase in prevalence compared to the 1998 estimate of 49 active gangs (Hall,
2010b; Moncrieffe, 1998).19 There are approximately 12 organized crime groups
on the island;20 estimates in 1998 were that there were 7 highly organized gangs
(Moncrieffe, 1998).21 While there is no validated estimate of the overall number
of gang members in Jamaica, some observers have claimed that gang membership could be as high as 20,000, with estimates for Kingston ranging from
6,000 to 10,000 (Manwaring, 2007, p. 35; Mogensen, 2005, p. 4). More recent
studies yield more conservative figures, however. According to an unreleased
gang threat assessment study completed by the MNS in 2009, there are approximately 3,900 gang members across the country—numbers still high enough
to suggest highly differentiated forms of ‘membership’.22 These findings are
similar to that of the 2006 Jamaican National Crime Victimization Survey
(JNCVS), in which 0.1 per cent of respondents were current gang members,
Why do you ask Wahalla, are you preparing a report for the CIA or something?
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