Research links harsh punishment to crime levels
Battered boys
Jamaican parents and caregivers are battering their
boys in the form of harsh punishment to the extent of sending many of
them to the hospital, and this abuse is being linked to rising levels of
crime and violence nationally.
Research published by the Health Promotion and
Protection Division of the Ministry of Health reveals that boys are
treated with disproportionate harshness and deliberate neglect at home.
The Ministry's research, released in the December
edition of JA People, a newsletter of the Social and Manpower Planning
Division, Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ), connected the pattern of
male involvement in crime to this social practice.
It quoted a survey which shows that, at home, an
average 84 per cent of all the children (85 per cent of the boys and 82
per cent of the girls) reported being beaten with an object. In addition
7.6 per cent of those surveyed (9.0 per cent of the boys and 6.3 per
cent of the girls) reported being kicked, bitten or beaten up.
Other research shows that boys are more likely to
receive injuries, sending them to the accident and emergency units of
the island's hospitals. According to information released by the Child
Development Agency, in 2002, there were 2,183 violence-related injuries
involving children in nine accident and emergency units across the
island, 70 per cent involving the use of a sharp or blunt instrument and
18 per cent involving the use of bodily force and guns. Of this number,
two times as many males than females exhibited injuries from sharp
instruments. The injuries were inflicted by parents and other
caregivers.
Rescued
Alma Bailey-Morris, senior social worker and team
leader with the Child Development Agency (CDA), said that in 2003, in
Kingston, one eight-year-old male was rescued from the home of his
father where he had been beaten severely and repeatedly with electric
wires for disobeying him and going to gaming halls.
The eight-year-old male was admitted to the Bustamante
Hospital for Children where he was treated for five days and then sent
to live with an aunt.
According to Mrs. Bailey-Morris, especially in the
inner city, boys are expected to require tough treatment. “Man is man.
They are also expected to fill the dual roles of defending their family
and the community,” she said.
Mavis Stewart, principal social worker of the CDA,
told The Sunday Gleaner that the problem was that “people punish
children as a consequence of their own frustrations. When they do that
they tend to go overboard.”
Dr. Ganesh Shettey, child psychiatrist employed to the
Child Guidance Clinic in the Corporate Area, said that he was aware of
boys routinely physically abused by those in their home environment. He
told The Sunday Gleaner that those young males who show up in the
accident and emergency units of the island's hospitals may be far less
than the actual size of the problem.
Scars
“Because of the tolerance we have to physical abuse,
many times there are incidents resulting in scarring which doctors never
see. When questioned, the answer is ‘Mommy or Daddy beat me,’” he noted. He said that the earlier the age and the more
prolonged the punishment, the more likely the young male is to develop a
mind framed by violence. “He can't trust anyone, the world is dangerous
and physical abuse is a part of life, are some of the lifelong attitudes
that such a child might develop.”
The youngest of children display signs of abuse in
sulking, tearfulness and miserable anxiety. In the more severe cases
there is post-traumatic stress syndrome, depression and other phobias,
Dr. Shettey stated. “Boys, especially, will become more defiant and
develop the attitude that the way to resolve differences is to
physically threaten or assault. There is a significant contribution of social factors
and socialisation in terms of long-term outcomes — many are turning out
to be violent,” the psychiatrist told The Sunday Gleaner.
Inclined to nurture
Many girls experience the same kinds of abuse but they
respond differently. Explaining the reason for that, Dr. Shettey said,
biologically and psycho-socially, girls are more inclined to nurture and
have less propensity to violence than boys. In the Jamaican society, he
said, there is also the impact of “modelling” where boys become bad men and gunmen. Girls on
their part, may become “worthless” entering into partnerships with the
criminally inclined.
The most recent statistics indicate that males account
for 98 per cent of the 3,364 persons arrested for major crimes in 2002.
Fifty-five per cent (1,860) of those arrested were young males less than
25 years of age. Among the 2,193 new admissions to correctional
institutions in 2002, 32 per cent or 625 were under 25 years of age and
83 per cent (1,833) were male.
In school, boys are at greater risk, the research also
shows. Corporal punishment was identified as a risk factor for school
aggression, as 75 per cent of children (80 per cent boys and 70 per cent
girls) reported a lifetime prevalence of being beaten with an object.
From the most recent Caribbean Youth Health Survey
done, data reveals that 15 per cent of students carried a weapon to
school all the time. The weapon most often carried was the knife (14 per
cent of boys vs. one per cent girls). The study also showed that
students who report school difficulties as a result of reading problems
were significantly more likely to fight with a weapon.
Extreme danger
It was also showed that extreme anger is commonly
experienced in teenagers, connecting this also with trends in male
violence. Four per cent of younger teens and nine per cent of older
teens reported extreme rage, 35 per cent thought about killing someone
‘some of the time’, while 5.3 per cent of students reported thinking of
killing someone ‘almost always’. Those students who report feeling
‘extremely angry’ are three times more likely than others to be involved
in violence.
Meanwhile, the CDA's executive director, Alison
Anderson, noted that, in an effort to counteract the effect of negative
socialisation in the home, the Ministry of Health is attempting the
develop a solution to the problem. Information from the Ministry itself states that the
target group of their intervention will be the early childhood years;
that is, at the pre-school and primary school level.
The focus, it was said, will be on building resiliency
at the individual, family and community levels. Successful interventions
will require the use of tools to engage young males in violence
prevention activities, it was stated.
* Information source: 'Violence Prevention - The Need
for Male focus', by Dr. Elizabeth Ward in JA People, December 2003, a
newsletter of the Social and Manpower Planning Division Planning
Institute of Jamaica.
By Avia Ustanny
13 January 2003
http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20040111/lead/lead1.html
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