KINGSTON, Jamaica (JIS) – There has been a downward trend in overall crime rates, with the January to September 2016 period recording a 20.2 per cent decline from the previous year.

This refers to Category One crimes, which include murder, shooting, rape, aggravated assault, robbery, break-ins and larceny.

According to programme director of the Vision 2030 Jamaica Secretariat, Elizabeth Emanuel, a total of 174 Category One crimes per 100,000 of the population were committed over the period. This is a decline of 218 over the similar period in 2015.

She said despite an uptick in murder rates for the first three quarters of this year, overall crimes have declined for the sixth consecutive year.

The murder rate for the January to September period was 34.8 per 100,000, which is 2.7 per cent more than 2015.

Meanwhile, Emanuel, who was addressing a quarterly press briefing at the Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ), in Kingston, on November 16, reported that the overall progress for the implementation of Jamaica’s development plan, Vision 2030, has been mixed. However, she said there were improvements in the achievement of targets in 2015 over 2014.

She said a summary of the progress made under the framework of national outcome indicators and targets for the plan shows that up to 2015, 62.7 of a total of 67 indicators have shown improvement over the baseline year, 2007.

Emanuel said 25.4 per cent of the Vision 2030 Jamaica targets for 2015 have already been met, 37.3 per cent showed improvements towards being met, and 34.3 per cent showed no improvement, or worsened.

She said indicators related to social areas displayed the weakest performances.