Jamaica’s Prime Minister Andrew Holness has declared that his Government will continue to “go hard on the criminals” and “eliminate” them from society, arguing that reducing crime is critical for Jamaica to achieve its full economic potential.
Speaking at Sunday night’s St Ann Chamber of Commerce Awards banquet at the Cardiff Hotel and Spa, Holness also urged citizens to reject the notion that criminals are modern-day Robin Hoods, the famous English folk hero who robbed from the rich to give to the poor.
He told business leaders and guests that shifting this mindset could improve Jamaica’s tourism product and lead to higher wages for workers in the sector.
“We will continue to go hard on the criminals; we will eliminate them from our society so we can get the full value of Jamaica!” declared Holness to loud applause.
“I want that to be unmistakable in its understanding. I am not ambivalent about it, and I want every Jamaican to be decisive about it; they [the criminals] are the ones that have kept us from realising our full potential,” he urged.
Holness argued that some Jamaicans still view criminal elements as protectors of communities or providers of justice.
“No, they’re not doing that! They are raping your daughters and killing your sons,” the prime minister said.
He pointed to recent crime data, noting that murders declined from 1,147 in 2024 to 673 in 2025 — a 43 per cent reduction in a single year. Holness told business leaders he expects the figure to fall even further in 2026.
“For the first time in 30 years, the murder rate is below a thousand… And we intend to bring the murder rate down even more, and I can tell you, once the murder rate goes all the way down in a sustained way, the value of Jamaican tourism is going to improve, and the value of production of the Jamaican tourism worker and their pay will improve,” Holness stated.
Earlier in his address, Holness compared tourism workers in Jamaica and Barbados, arguing that crime has reduced the value of Jamaica’s tourism industry and kept wages lower than those in Barbados.
“The hotel worker in Runaway Bay [St Ann] works just as hard as the hotel worker in Bridgetown [Barbados], but the Barbadian economy generates nearly three times the value per hour as our economy. They are not working three times as hard as us; they are working in a higher value version of the same industry,” Holness said.
He added, “The Barbadian worker isn’t working harder than persons who I saw serving quite efficiently and professionally here, but they earn more because they have a higher value product than us.”
Holness said one key factor behind Barbados’ higher-value tourism sector is lower crime levels.
“There are many reasons… I want to focus on one just now; Barbados has less crime than us,” he said.
The prime minister also argued that societal tolerance contributes to Jamaica’s crime problem.
“Why do we have more crime here? [There are] many reasons, but one of it is that we tolerate it as a people. We are ambivalent about it as a people! For some people who are involved in crime, it is because of some social injustice or social disenfranchisement…[but] we need as a people to be clear in minds that crime impacts our productivity, [and] crime destroys the value of our service and product,” he insisted.
Holness further contended that criminals are not simply disenfranchised youths, noting that money spent on illegal firearms could instead be used to build legitimate livelihoods.
“We must stop seeing the criminals as Robin Hoods and see them for what they are— a pestilence!” declared Holness.
“I can tell by the clap [that] my statement is true. Ambivalence! And until we get that out of our minds that we not dealing with angels, then we will continue to cuddle them unless we recognise that the criminals impact the tourism product and reduces the value we can get from it [and] we won’t grow and your wages will remain low, because the service that we offer is a much better product, but we can’t get the value out of it because there is this stigma,” Holness stated.
