Abstract

HOMICIDE, SEXUAL HOMICIDE AND RAPE: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF JAMAICA AND NEW YORK, 1970-2013

Paul Andrew Bourne*, Angela Hudson-Davis, Charlene Sharpe-Pryce, Ikhalfani Solan, Shirley Nelson, Lecia Smith, Monette George, Louise Brown, Conroy Julian, Cynthia Francis

ABSTRACT

Background: Crimes such as rape and homicide erode profile and severely affect the safety and welfare of the population. The World Health Organization reports that, globally, at least one out of every three women has been a victim of sexual violence. These victims generally know their offenders and at least a third of the murders or rapes, which end in homicide, are committed by an intimate partner. The prevalence of sexual violence may be significantly underreported due to the stigma associated with being a victim of this act and policy makers can promote more effective ways of obtaining more accurate data. Objectives: The objective of this research is to expand the literature by investigating sexual violence and homicide between Jamaica and New York. Therefore, the primary focus of this manuscript is to present empirical evidence of the rates (including trends, probabilities and functions) of homicide, sexual homicide and rape in Jamaica compared to that of the State of New York, United States, and, to ascertain the correlation between the two crimes in each area and between locations. Methods: The data for this research derived from adisparate number of Jamaica Government Publications and the State of New York data were compiled by the Disaster Center taken from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Uniform Crime Reporting (UCS) Annual Crime Reports. The research covered the time between 1970 and 2013. The level of significance that is used to determine statistical significance is less than 5% (0.05) at the 2-tailed level of significance. Scatter plots and curve estimations were used to determine whether rape and carnal abuse rate is a factor of homicide as well as the power of the relationship, using R2. Result: The homicide and sexual assault and rape rates have shown varying trends in Jamaica and New York during the period between 1970-2013, with the rates for Jamaica almost twice that of New York. The results show an exponential increase in the homicide and rape rates in Jamaica since 1970. Interestingly, the data elucidated that there is a greater probability that an individual is more likely to be raped or murdered in Jamaica than in New York . Conclusion: The study furnished compelling evidence to support need for the development and implementation of more robust public health policies to mitigate the sexual epidemic that plagues many countries and to increase the protection of those who are especially vulnerable to such crimes. Researchers and policy makers have an obligation to address this public health dilemma of sexual violence and to ensure that these policies are appropriately enforced.

Keywords: Homicide, Rape, Stigma, Sexual homicide, Sexual Violence, Victim, Jamaica.