MANDEVILLE, Manchester – She is not disputing the right of women to dress in their preferred style.

But Puisne Judge Paulette Williams is warning that women who dress immodestly run the risk of being adversely perceived by others, not least courtroom jurors.

Justice Williams was reflecting on social decay and declining values in modern Jamaica while addressing the annual fundraising dinner of the Returned Residents’ Association of Mandeville at the Golf View Hotel here last Saturday.

She recalled that last year Bishop Herro Blair earned widespread criticism for saying that women who dressed skimpily ran the risk of provoking rape. Noting that Jamaica’s conviction rate for rape cases was “woefully” low, Williams appeared to suggest that the view advocated by Blair a year ago was dominant in the courtroom.

“I remember some time ago one minister dared to suggest that the way women dress might send the wrong message and encourage rape. He was chastised seriously for it. But I am here to tell you that any good defence attorney who wants to destroy a woman’s credibility (in rape cases) tries to bring out how she was dressed. Was she dressed in a tight pants or a tight skirt, and believe it or not things like those affect the jury.

“Needless to say, the level of conviction that we get for rape in Jamaica is woefully few. So regardless of how we may feel about our right to dress the way we want to, the fact is it does have an impact.,” said the judge.

Williams had built up to her comments about the courtroom by arguing that current forms of dress among young people and popular music which glorified sex and violence reflected a decline in society’s standards from decades ago, when for example, children learnt uplifting memory gems in school.

“How can we expect better from a generation that does not know better and are being exposed to things in Jamaica today that cannot be pointing them in a direction where they will be able to do better?” she asked.

“Consider. the music our children are exposed to . if it’s not glorifying sex and violence and condemning certain things it is not considered something that our children will listen to, and they tend to cling to the words of these songs.

“Then we look at the music videos that go along with these songs. First of all the dress of the ladies, the way they move. Have you ever noticed that the men don’t dress as scantily? And I wonder, can these things affect the way young men look at the young women in Jamaica . can it affect the way young men respect or don’t respect the young women of Jamaica.?”

Williams was also critical of the media for “glorifying” criminals and other antisocial types while ignoring the achievements of outstanding, hard-working Jamaicans. A recent case in point, she said, was the publicity surrounding the police killing of criminal gang leader Donovan “Bulbie” Bennett, while the ascendancy of Justice Paul Harrison to the presidency of the Jamaican Court of Appeal was largely ignored.

“. Most of us know all about Bulbie, but very few of us know about the appointment of a Jamaican black man to the presidency of the Court of Appeal in Jamaica the same week Bulbie was killed. so we have to consider our media and how they tend to glorify criminality.,” she said.

A way would have to be found to return Jamaica to a gentler place and away from the situation where an increasing number of young people, 16, 17,18-year-olds, were appearing before her for the most “atrocious crimes”, said Williams.

“When you look into the eyes of these persons. you do not see anything, they don’t care, they have no remorse, they are just living for the sake of living and that is what scares me about Jamaica . and worse, the young people today are growing up with no knowledge of a better Jamaica.

“They see the reality of this Jamaica with its crime rate and murder rate, they live in this Jamaica where you find so much unemployment, so even when you encourage them to work hard and get an education when they are finished with school, what do they do.?” she said.

Pointing to the “great” experience and knowledge of the thousands of Jamaicans returning home from North America and Britain, Williams said that rather then lose hope, members of her audience should do their part by helping to get young people on the correct path.

She argued that while it was good to “recognise our problems and talk about them, we have to find concrete things to do to take Jamaica’s young back from the path of continued decay and disorder.” She suggested that returned residents and other responsible Jamaicans should seek to maintain dialogue with young people wherever and however possible.

Schools and children’s homes were among the institutions badly in need of mentoring and guidance help, she said.

“At this time in the children’s homes they are flooded with ice cream and cake. But for the rest of the year, we should find the time to just go and share with them. In some of these children’s homes are young people who have been abandoned, nobody to love them and care for them,” she said.

– myersg@jamaicaobserver.com