Imani Tafari-Ama | Gender-based violence and the price of class in Jamaica

March, International Women’s Month, is often marked by celebration – of women’s achievements, resilience, and contributions to society. Yet, in Jamaica, as in many parts of the world, the epidemic of gender-based violence continues to claim women’s lives with alarming regularity.

This year, that reckoning has been sharpened by the legal conclusion of trials of two prominent men for the brutal killings of their intimate partners. The murders of two women – Donnalee Donaldson and Melissa Silvera – have not only horrified the nation but exposed deep fractures in our justice system.

The details of these crimes are chilling. They speak not only to acts of violence but to calculation, deception, and a disturbing sense of entitlement. In both cases, the perpetrators were not strangers lurking in the shadows. They were lover and husband, intimate partners. Men entrusted with care, protection, and love. Instead, they weaponised that intimacy, turning spaces of supposed safety into sites of terror.

Public outrage was swift and intense. Jamaicans recoiled at the grotesque efforts made to conceal these crimes – the lies, the manipulation, the cold, premeditated attempts to evade justice. There was, for many, a measure of relief in the sentencing of Corporal Noel Maitland. His 32-years-before-parole sentence was seen as a firm statement that even those within the ranks of law enforcement are not beyond accountability.

Yet this sense of justice was uneven and ultimately unsettled. In stark contrast stood the case of Jolyan Silvera, whose last-minute plea to manslaughter allowed him to bypass a full trial and secure eligibility for parole in just 13 years. The reaction was markedly different. There was disbelief, cynicism, and a deepening sense that justice in Jamaica is not blind but stratified.

LONG-STANDING CONCERN

At the heart of this disquiet lies a long-standing concern – one articulated nearly two decades ago in the Chevannes report – that Jamaica’s justice system is permeated by systemic classism. The outcomes of these two cases seem to reinforce that troubling conclusion. When the poor and the powerful come before the courts, they do not always meet the same system. The scales of justice, it appears, are weighted – not only by evidence and law but by status, access, and influence.

For women globally, gender safety is not always certain. And for the past two decades, the figure of 1 in 3 females experiencing physical, sexual, psychosocial, and emotional violence at least once in their lifetime, has remained unchanged. This ratio has harsh reality outcomes.

Gender-based violence does not occur in a vacuum but is embedded within broader systems of unequal power relations. Women are already disadvantaged by male- domination values, which normalise behaviours of control, excuse aggression, and silence victims. When class is added to the equation, the vulnerabilities multiply. A woman’s access to justice – her likelihood of being believed, protected, and vindicated – can depend as much on her social standing as on the facts of her case. Plus, there is no bringing back a murdered loved one to life.

What message, then, do these cases send? What does it mean for women’s safety when the law appears uneven in its application? When one man’s elaborate deception results in a lengthy sentence while another’s calculated plea secures a comparatively lenient outcome, the signal is deeply unsettling. No interrogation of the provocation claim also leaves an ominous loophole. It suggests that accountability is negotiable, that justice can be bargained, and that some lives – some women’s lives – may be valued less than others.

This is not merely a legal issue. It is a moral and societal crisis. It forces us to confront uncomfortable questions about whose pain counts, whose voices are heard, and whose deaths provoke meaningful consequences. It challenges the narrative that justice is impartial, revealing instead a system that may reproduce the very inequalities it is meant to redress.

NATIONAL CONSCIOUSNESS

The brutality of Melissa Silvera’s death has seared itself into the national consciousness. The bizarre nature of the act – the use of her own body in such a degrading and violent manner – underscores the depths of sexism that can run its treacherous ways in relations between partners who might even appear to be okay. Yet the legal framing of this act as manslaughter, rather than murder, raises troubling questions about how violence against women is interpreted and adjudicated.

Addressing gender-based violence requires more than reactive outrage. It demands structural change. First, there must be a recommitment to equity within the justice system. This means not only examining sentencing disparities but questioning the processes that lead to the verdict. We must look again at plea bargaining practices, prosecutorial discretion, and the resources available to defendants. Transparency and accountability are essential if public confidence is to be restored.

Second, there must be a deeper engagement with the cultural norms that sustain violence. Patriarchal attitudes that frame women as property, that trivialise emotional abuse, sexual or financial violence and that excuse male aggression must be actively challenged. Education, public conversations and community leadership all have roles to play in reshaping these narratives.

Third, support systems for victims/survivors must be strengthened. Women need accessible, well-resourced avenues for reporting abuse, seeking protection and rebuilding their lives. This includes shelters, legal aid, counselling services and responsive policing. Safety cannot be an afterthought. Instead, it must be treated as a foundational priority.

Finally, there must be a collective refusal to normalise or excuse violence in any form. The outrage that followed these cases must not dissipate into resignation. It must be harnessed into sustained advocacy, policy reform, and cultural transformation.

International Women’s Month calls us to celebrate progress. However, it also compels us to confront the work that remains undone. The deaths of Donalee Donaldson and Melissa Silvera are not isolated tragedies. They are part of a broader pattern that demands urgent attention. They remind us that behind every statistic is a life – interrupted, violated and too often, undervalued.

If we are to honour these women and all those whose lives have been cut short by gender-based violence, we must move beyond symbolic gestures. We must insist on a justice system that is truly just – one that protects all women regardless of class and one that holds all perpetrators fully accountable.

Anything less is a betrayal – not only of the victims but of the very ideals we claim to uphold.

Imani Tafari-Ama, PhD, is a Pan-African advocate and gender and development specialist. Send feedback to i.tafariama@gmail.com and columns@gleanerjm.com