Home            Contact us            FAQs
    
      Journal Home      |      Aim & Scope     |     Author(s) Information      |      Editorial Board      |      MSP Download Statistics

     Asian Journal of Business Management

    Abstract
2012(Vol.4, Issue:3)
Article Information:

Murder and Politics in Jamaica: A Historical Quantitative Analysis, 1970-2009

Paul Andrew Bourne, Damion K. Blake, Charlene Sharpe-Pryce and Ikhalfani Solan
Corresponding Author:  Paul A. Bourne 
Submitted: January 26, 2012
Accepted: March 02, 2012
Published: June 25, 2012
Abstract:
The electoral process in Jamaica has been uninterrupted since 1944. Two major political parties, the People’s National Party (PNP) and the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) have dominated the process of competing for the loyalty, affection and the votes of the populace. In a bid to exercise and/or capture the franchise of the electorate, violence and bloodshed have marred the electoral process. This study: 1) examines the murders during the governance of each political party in Jamaica from 1970 to 2009; and 2) explores patterns and distribution of murders over four decades. The current study uses secondary data from various Jamaican government publications, namely the Jamaica Survey of Living Conditions, Statistical Digest, Jamaica Constabulary Force and Economic and Social Survey of Jamaica. Between 1969 and 2010, on average 722± 453 (95%CI: 575-869) Jamaicans were murdered annually. Comparatively, there were 762±431 people murdered during the time the People’s National Party (PNP) governed Jamaica to 631±507 in the tenure of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), which was not statistically different (t-test = 0.830, 0.412). However, the average number of murders in each decade (1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s) was statistically different (F-statistic = 55.071, p<0.0001). The probability of being murdered in the 1970s was 0.09 compared to 0.16 in the 1980s, 0.27 in the 1990s and 0.48 in 2000s. The number of people murdered during the tenure of each political administration shows no statistical difference, which indicates that neither of the two political parties as a single variable can take credit for a lower murder rate. It also strongly forecasts the urgency needed to address the increased rate of murder experienced since 2000 in Jamaica.

Key words:  Inequality, Jamaica, Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), maldistribution of income, murder, political administration, People’s National Party (PNP), politics, power relations
Abstract PDF HTML
Cite this Reference:
Paul Andrew Bourne, Damion K. Blake, Charlene Sharpe-Pryce and Ikhalfani Solan, . Murder and Politics in Jamaica: A Historical Quantitative Analysis, 1970-2009. Asian Journal of Business Management, (3): 233-251.
ISSN (Online):  2041-8752
ISSN (Print):   2041-8744
Submit Manuscript
   Information
   Sales & Services
Home   |  Contact us   |  About us   |  Privacy Policy
Copyright © 2024. MAXWELL Scientific Publication Corp., All rights reserved