The brutal murder of two women in the past week has brought into sharp focus the plight of women in Jamaica, who are increasingly becoming the victims of violence.  With just a little over four months into the year, already 67 women have been murdered, an average of 16 women per month.  If the current trend continues, this year could record the highest number of females murdered in the last six years.

The highest number of recorded female murders over that period was in 2005 when 186 women were killed.  Since then the figure has remained steady for a while, with a decline to 152 in 2006 and 150 last year.  Only in 2003 was the number of women killed for the year under 100.  In that year 87 women were murdered.  

Last weekend, the body of 41-year-old Special Corporal Cynthia Patterson was found in North Parade in downtown Kingston with gunshot wounds.  Two days later, 22-year-old cosmetologist, Shushania Young, was chased and murdered in front of many persons in the busy York Plaza in Half-Way Tree, St. Andrew.

The two murders, which have drawn the ire of several womens organisations that have condemned the vicious attacks on the nations women, brings to 783 the number of women murdered in Jamaica since 2003.

I am alarmed and despondent, said Hermione McKenzie, president of the Association of Womens Organisations in Jamaica (AWOJA).  It is really hard to see women who are the backbone of society just being wiped out, she said.

McKenzie said many women have been killed as scapegoats in their communities.

"When you have conflicts in communities, women are often used as victims.  They are vulnerable and are sometimes deliberately targeted, McKenzie said, adding that, People feel that killing the women and children is a way of punishing the men.

Secondary victims
Police statistics have confirmed that a significant number of the women killed were secondary victims caught between warring gangsters.  Between 2003 and May of this year, at least 123 women were killed in gang-related violence and so far this year, gang war has topped the list of motives, accounting for 27 of the 67 female murders recorded so far.  The situation was similar in 2006 and 2007, when gang-related hits were second on the list of motives for female murders.  

Gang-related motives were second only to domestic violence, which was responsible for a whopping 179 female murders for the five-year period.  The police have not established motives for 94 of the murders, while 368 were related to other criminal activities.  Drug-related murders among women were the least common, with only 19 recorded between 2003 and May of 2008.

McKenzie said the wanton slaying of women had made it more difficult for womens groups to spread the message of non-violence against women.  Violence against women has been the focus of several womens groups, which have condemned the practice, whether it is murder, less deadly domestic violence or sexual abuse.

When you kill a woman, you kill a family, McKenzie said.