As of October 31, there have been at least 43 homicides in Barbados between January 1 and October 31, marking a 7.5% increase over the previous January-to-September period in 2024. For the same period last year (January to October 2023), there were 16 homicides, showing an increase of 27 cases, or 168%. My count and analysis are based solely on media reports; the figures and insights provided below should not be considered official or final.
Note to Table 1: A new column, “Approach Method,” has been added to the table. This captures, when available through news reports, how the attacker approached the victim. For example, was it a drive-by, or did the assailant(s) drive to the scene, exit the vehicle, and then attack? In both cases, I would categorize it as ‘Motorcar.’ Alternatively, was the attack carried out on foot, such as a fight that broke out in a bar or an attacker approaching the victim on the street? This variable is subjective, as it relies on the specific details available from reports.
Of the 43 homicides so far, 20% of them occurred during June.
Note to Chart 2: Parish information was available for 42 of the 43 homicides, with the exception of Sonia Parris, as the specific parish where she was attacked is unknown at the time of this post.
47% of all homicides so far have occurred in St. Michael.
Note to Table 2: Per capita by parish values have been added because looking at the absolute value of homicides by parish, without taking into consideration the population by parish, is not entirely accurate. For example, although St. Michael generally has the highest number of homicides in absolute terms, when we factor in its population size, along with the number of homicides and population sizes in other parishes, St. Michael is not always the highest.
From a per capita point of view, St. Philip had the highest number of homicides so far (22.8).
Note to Chart 4: The two unknowns refer to Sonia Parris (April) and Daphne Thomas (September). The two homicides categorized as ‘Other’ relate to physical altercations.
70% of homicides, (excluding Unknown) were shooting related.
The average age of homicide victims, to date, is 32.7 years old. Excluding Unknown victims, the youngest were 17 years old (Dashawn Hinkson and Jakori Wilkinson), while the eldest was 58 years old (Sonia Parris). 55% of victims fell into the 18 to 34 year old age group.
93% of homicide victims were Male.
Excluding Unknown, 53% of homicides occurred during the work week, which I define as Monday to Thursday.
Excluding Unknown, 22% of attacks that resulted in homicides occurred on a Saturday.
Note to Chart 10: The time reported in The Media of the incident is what I use to assign homicides to one of six time slots. However, it is important to note that in some cases, this may not be when the victim was attacked (or their time of death).
35% of attacks that resulted in death occurred between 8 PM and 12 AM.
caribbeansignal.com is the personal blog of Amit Uttamchandani. Posts or comments made by Amit on this blog represent His personal views, opinions, thoughts, et cetera. Furthermore, the information presented in this particular do not represent official crime statistics. Finally, the raw data, i.e., the Excel file(s) used to create this post, as well as raw data dumps from the Barbados Homicide Database are available for purchase.