Reverend Karl Johnson, chairman of the Baptist World Alliance, has described Jamaica’s crime problem as “seemingly incurable,” warning that the nation’s social fabric is rapidly unravelling. Responding to the latest Violence Against Children and Youth Survey, he urged leaders to treat crime with the urgency of a public-health emergency, much like the country once did with the economy and COVID-19.

Ja's youth in crises 

Cleric calls for moral reset as study finds widespread violence directly, indirectly affecting most teens to 24-y-os

Jamaica Gleaner/12 Oct 2025/Erica Virtue

CRIME AND violence have long plagued Jamaica, with the crisis continuing in 2025 – and with several notable incidents particularly over the past three months – leaving the nation’s youth devastated. The consequences have been fatal, physical, and emotionally scarring. Yet, one of Jamaica’s most senior clerics, Reverend Karl Johnson, fears the worst is yet to come.

Johnson, chairman of the Baptist World Alliance, described the level of violence gripping the island as “seemingly incurable”. Speaking with The Sunday Gleaner, he warned that the country is merely getting by while its social fabric continues to unravel.

His comments follow the release of the Jamaica Violence Against Children and Youth Survey (VACS) Report 2023, a report compiled by the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and UNICEF, in collaboration with the Government of Jamaica and the Planning Institute of Jamaica. Conducted by Dr Robin Haarr, the study paints a stark picture of violence against youth aged 13 to 24.

According to the findings, nearly 80 per cent of young Jamaicans in that age group have either experienced or been exposed to sexual, physical, or emotional violence. The research was conducted using a national household sample and adapted to fit the Jamaican context. It examined the long-term impact of violence on the health, safety, and development of the country’s children and young adults – some of whom have been affected since infancy.

Johnson, the pastor of the Phillippo Baptist Church in Spanish Town, St Catherine, urged national leaders and the public to move beyond symbolic gestures like “thoughts and prayers” or grief counseling. He said the country must begin treating crime as the public health emergency it truly is.

“We treated the country’s economic situation as a public health disaster by establishing the then Economic Programme Oversight Committee. We did so well that it has now been disbanded. We treated the COVID-19 pandemic as the public health disaster that it was. Look how quickly we recovered from it. Why are we not treating crime against everybody the same?” he asked. Johnson told The Sunday Gleaner that he recently completed a sermon series titled ‘If Jamaica Matters’, in which he challenged the moral and ethical state of the nation. One sermon, titled ‘We Reap What We Sow’, emphasised that the violence affecting children is not their doing, but the result of a society that has failed them. “It’s a problem of the adults and the society that we have. I will defend the view that the only way we can save the children is to save the adults . ... “The perpetrators of crimes, in many instances, have been victims of crimes. There are many young people in this country who all they know is crime,” the senior cleric noted, adding that while he believes in prayer, it means little without action for victims of violence.

LATEST STUDY

UNICEF Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist Donneth Edmondson said the VACS study was globally standardized but customised for Jamaica, including language adjustments and cultural considerations. The research was supported by the Statistical Institute of Jamaica, which provided representative islandwide sampling.

Two separate surveys were conducted in randomly selected male and female households. For sensitive questions, the study used technology that allowed respondents to tap their answers privately on a tablet without speaking aloud. This method encouraged greater honesty, particularly from male participants, Edmondson noted.

“This report describes the burden and contexts of health conditions, social consequences and risk and protective factors associated with violence against children, adolescents, and young adults. It also explores the overlap between sexual, physical, and emotional violence and the services sought and utilised for incidents of sexual violence and physical violence. The wealth of data provided by the Jamaica VACS can guide prevention and response efforts that are uniquely adapted to the context of Jamaica for the children and youth of Jamaica,” she said.

The findings show that violence among youth does not occur in isolation – it is part of a larger pattern embedded in community norms, home life, and even schools. Since the start of 2025, the toll on young people has been severe.

MOST TRAGIC RECENT CASES

Among the most tragic recent cases was the murder of a kindergartner; a disabled child; and teenager Shantina Sergeant, a Christiana High School student whose charred remains were discovered last week behind her Clarendon home. Her father is being sought for questioning as a person of interest in the case. Her death came shortly after another Manchester teen, Jaydon Smith,

‘We Reap What We Sow’, emphasised that the violence affecting children is not their doing, but the result of a society that has failed them.

went missing. Despite unconfirmed sightings, the seventh-grader has not been reunited with his family in more than three weeks.

The Ministry of Education has routinely dispatched grief counsellors to affected schools in the wake of traumatic events, but Johnson insists more systemic change is needed.

“The majority of Jamaican youth have witnessed violence in the community during childhood. Gang activity is not only prevalent in neighbourhoods but also in schools. Exposure to violence is associated with both violence victimisation and perpetration,” the VACS study stated.

The account of a 17-year-old high school girl from St Catherine underscores the deep trauma youth endure.

“Gunshots are like car horns [in my community],” she told The Sunday Gleaner.

At 10, she lost her mother in a shooting intended for someone else. Four years ago, her 20-yearold sister was murdered.

“But what I remember is when I was 14 years old, the police come to my grandmother house, take out my uncle out of the house and kill him outside. They tell us (grandmother, me and cousin) to ‘Go back in di house! Go back in di house!’.

“I was peeping to see what they were going to do with him after they take him out. After they killed him, I bawled out, ‘Jesus Christ!’. That’s when the policeman know that I saw what happened. Then they picked up the spent shells,” the 11th-grader recalled.

“Another policeman took up a big stone and fling it at me. The stone hit me just below my knee and almost broke my foot. I had to go to the hospital and couldn’t go to school for days,” said the teenager.

Now in 11th grade, she said she knows more than 50 people affected by violence, including several schoolmates. But what haunts her most is that the people supposed to protect her – the police – are also part of the violence.

“I did not expect the police to harm me for looking. The police talking ‘bout ‘violence producers’, a dem a violence producers. Now every time I hear a siren, even if it’s ambulance, mi heart start jumping in my stomach and I feel like I want to wet myself,” she told The Sunday Gleaner.

250 FATAL POLICE SHOOTINGS

Since the start of 2025, the Jamaica Constabulary Force has been involved in more than 250 fatal shootings. The Independent Commission of Investigations, which monitors police conduct, recently reported that in one of every five police operations resulting in a civilian death at home, a female relative is removed from the premises just before shots are fired.

Up to October 4, some 522 murders were also recorded across the island – a 40.9 per cent fall from the 883 over the corresponding period in 2024.

For many youth, incidents of violence are not isolated events but recurring nightmares. The normalisation of violence has led some to carry weapons for protection. The VACS study warns that urgent intervention is needed to address weapon-related violence, especially in communities where fear has already disrupted daily life.

The study further revealed that nearly half of females and a third of males aged 13 to 17 missed school or stayed home in the year prior to the COVID-19 lockdown due to fear for their safety. Many children have personally witnessed someone being stabbed or shot, and a significant number have lost close acquaintances to murder.

Reverend Johnson believes the country stands at a moral crossroads. Without immediate, coordinated action to tackle the root causes of violence – including poverty, trauma, and weak institutional trust – the damage to Jamaica’s youth may become irreversible.

“[We need] a serious moral and ethical reset, where we develop a culture of value in ourselves.”

Only then, he said, can we begin to reclaim our future.

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