The recent surge in gun play in Barbados has been featured prominently in the media over the last few days (see here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here).
On July 8, the Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, The Honourable Dale Marshall, addressed this, and related matters, during a press conference (see here). During the presser, the AG also shared some statistics relating to murders and firearms between 2017 and present day:
“In 2017, of those 30 murders, 16 have been solved so far. In 2018, of the 28 murders, 19 have been solved, that 19 amounts to 68 per cent. In 2019, 27 of the 48 murders reported were solved; that’s 56 per cent. Of the 41 murders committed in 2020, 26 or 63 per cent have been solved [and] in 2021, 23 or 72 per cent of the 32 murders were solved. And for this year, of the 17 murders thus far, 10 have been cleared up and some of those have only happened in the last few weeks,” the Attorney General disclosed.
Source: Barbados Government Information Service
As a Barbadian citizen and resident, the topic of crime and violence (especially gun related) is of great importance and a worry to me. However, the majority – if not all of my posts – rarely deal with my personal views and opinions. As a data analyst on the other hand, I try to focus on what is being reported (in terms of facts, figures, et cetera), and collecting, compiling and analyzing said data and information. I was therefore excited when the AG shared some statistics which I will now look at below.
Table 1 was derived from the statistics that the AG provided during the presser (see above quotation). The average per month was calculated by dividing the number of murders by the number of months in a year (12). In the case of July, I used 7 (even though July isn’t over as yet). From the above Table, the average per month varies between 2 to 4 murders per year. The AG also spoke to the number of murders solved (which meant there was a number for unsolved murders which I have provided).
Charts 1, 2 and 3 below help to visualize what was said at the presser, and not said but that can be calculated and visualized.
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