In THE STAR's DNA Detective series, a staggering 87 per cent of the men tested so far have been proven not to be the biological fathers of the children they were raising or accused of fathering. Of the 12 DNA tests offered through the partnership between this newspaper and Polygenics Consulting, eight have been completed so far. Seven of the men were found not to be the biological fathers. In one case, a man who had been accused of fathering a child with his stepdaughter was excluded by the DNA results. Following these dramatic revelations, THE STAR hit the streets of downtown Kingston to find out how Jamaicans feel about the data and what, if anything, should be done about it. For 64-year-old Derrick Bennett, the results were no surprise. "This a gwan fi years, donkey years, suh anuh nothing new," he said. However, what shocked him more was the way some men reacted to the results, deciding to cut all ties to children they had been raising with love. During his interview, a passer-by butted in loudly, declaring, "If a woman eva gi mi a jacket, mi kill har, poison dat and kill har!" The comment stunned Bennett, who quickly rebutted that violence was never the answer and neither was abandoning a child you had already accepted as your own. "Mi nuh know how some man dweet," he said, shaking his head. "A five pickney mi have, and all five plus mi gran pickney dem live a mi house right now." After separating from his wife, Bennett met his current partner and raised her three children as his own, including one he met when she was just two years old. "One a mi daughter dem tell mi seh all when she get big, she nah come outta mi house and she nah leff mi out. She get five pickney now, and all a dem deh a mi house right now cause mi love mi pickney dem," he said, adding that a man's role as a father isn't just about DNA. "Sometimes a di one dem weh a nuh fi yuh come and tek care a yuh more than fi yuh own. Yuh affi love every yute because dem growing," he reasoned. But he also believes men need to be more mindful of who they get involved with. "Some man just scrape up woman and carry dem go a yard. Yuh affi know who yuh a deal wid. Know har people, know what kind a woman she be, know how she think before yuh lay down wid har." Shawn Dawson, 43, told THE STAR that men have a role in what he sees as a growing trend of deception. "One smaddy cah give bun, it tek two," he argued. "Some man know seh di woman have her man and still a force himself pon har. Then when she get pregnant, she cah gi di pickney to di outside man she aguh gi it to har husband fi nuh mash up har life." Still, Dawson believes there should be consequences when women knowingly deceive men about paternity. "If a man can get lock up fi not paying him child support, the woman dem fi pay back di money if DNA prove is not his child," he said. However, vendor and mother Shantel Cherrington saw no justification for what she described as the deliberate deception of "jacket giving". She was shocked when she heard the DNA Detective results. "No sah! Dem gyal yah wicked!" she shouted, causing several heads to turn in the busy marketplace. "Jah know... how Jamaican woman dem wicked suh?" Cherrington theorised that money is often the motivation behind jacket giving, with some women choosing to name men who are better able to provide financial support. She added that she knows multiple women who have given men jackets, and said it's time for mandatory DNA tests to be offered at birth. "Mi nuh feel like nuh man fi mine a pickney weh a nuh fi them. If him know, now that different. But then yuh have some woman weh if this week the man cah find the money fi di pickney, dem call dem and cuss dem when dem know deep down anuh di man pickney. Suh dem need fi start test di pickney dem from dem born," she said. Janoy Moses, 22, is six months pregnant with her second child, and she sees the issue as a matter of national urgency. "The woman dem nah stop sleep roun, and dem a duh it without protection," she said. "If a man wah know if him a di fada, him affi guh pay fi DNA test and a nuh every man can afford it." she said. "Too much pickney deh yah weh nuh know dem real fada. Suh mi support government testing from day one," she added.