|
NEW ZEALAND
'At-risk' birth register possible
solution to future crime
As New Zealand's prisons bulge with new inmates, a
retired Family Court judge tells how future criminals could be saved by
an "at-risk" birth register. Janna Hamilton reports
A child in the first three years of their life exposed
to neglect and violence may be heading for a life of crime, a former
Human Rights Commissioner and recently retired district and family court
judge says.
Graeme MacCormick has released a paper calling for all
newborns to be placed on a national "at-risk" register so child services
can identify which children, and their caregivers, need assistance and
support - before it's too late. "It is from disadvantaged children,
those not given a good start in life, that most of our young and not so
young criminal offenders come," Mr MacCormick said. "We cannot afford
more police, more court staff, more judges, more prisons, more accident
and emergency and mental health workers, more wasted lives, than we
already have."
New research by New Zealand's Brainwave Trust shows a
baby's brain is only 15 per cent formed at birth, with the remaining 85
per cent being formed in the first three years. "Neglect, violence and
abuse during these years can damage normal brain development resulting
in the profound and permanent disruption to the brain's structure,
leading to lifelong social, emotional and learning difficulties,"
according to website of the trust made up doctors, educationalists,
academic and business professionals.
Babies deprived of stimulating experiences and love,
for example, have been found to have brains 20-30 per cent smaller than
others of their age.
According to the trust, for a baby's brain to develop,
the brain cells (neurones) need to be activated to connect up to each
other - these connections allow basic survival functions. The average
three-year-old living in a stimulating, secure and loving environment
will have 1000 trillion of these connections. "What the child sees,
hears, touches, smells, and feels triggers electrical activity causing
neurones to mature and connections, pathways and networks to form."
Mr MacCormick said risk factors likely to hinder a
baby's brain development includes alcohol or drug abuse by their parents
or caregivers, a history of family violence, poverty, solo-parenting and
transitoriness. He said it was often a combination of factors that leads
to an infant being deprived of a secure, stimulating and loving
environment. "When the child is actually on the way and for the first
two or three years after it arrives ... is when (parents) need maximum
assistance."
Mr MacCormick said the needs/risk assessment could be
done in most cases by the health professional primarily responsible for
the birth itself. He said if the assessment was objective and mandatory
it could not be deemed selective. "Although there are personal
information, privacy, choice and freedom issues ... the right of
children to the best possible start in life and societal benefits should
and must outweigh the rights of parents and caregivers."
Dr Simon Rowley, a neonatal paediatrician at National
Women's Hospital and Brainwave Trustee, said studies in Dunedin and
Christchurch, as well as overseas, had shown it was possible to predict
who would have a bad childhood from the time of birth onwards. "You can
look at the infants styles of interaction – withdrawing children who
don't wish to communicate socially, constantly crying miserable kids."
He said an at-risk national birth register was a good suggestion, but
its implementation would have to be sensitive. "It might sound big-brotherish,
but it's not saying "well we think you are bad people", it's saying
"look we know you guys are starting on the back foot, let's push you
forward"."
Dr Rowley said already established programmes - Hippy,
First Start, - which went into low socioeconomic pockets of society
where it was identified to be needed, but they were only hitting a small
percentage of the population. To reach the entire population, he said,
it would need to be a government-sponsored initiative - and that
signalled money. Dr Rowley said similar case studies overseas have cost
millions of dollars.
Mr MacCormick acknowledged there would be high costs
and a lot of manpower needed to establish and implement an at-risk
national registry. "(But) the costs of doing nothing are huge."
In his paper Mr MacCormick presents estimated costs of
child abuse and prison services. In the year to June 30, 2005, Child,
Youth and Family Services received more than 53,000 abuse and neglect
notifications, of which 43,000 required some follow up - the estimated
cost of child abuse, according to Brainwave Trust, has been estimated at
$393,000,000. Mr MacCormick said approximately $54,560 was spent on a
prisoner per annum in custodial services alone - this was before adding
the costs of preceding criminal trials.
He said there was also the uncounted costs to families
and the next generation who have spent their formative years exposed to
daily family/whanau violence.
Progressive MP Matt Robson, the former Minister of
Corrections 1999-2002 said a ministerial report showed the cost to
intervene a defiant, rule-breaking five-year-old was $5000 a case, with
a 70 per cent success rate. The same behaviour by a 25-year-old cost
$20,000 a case, with a success rate of 20 per cent at most.
Mr Robson said prisons reflected the country's social
needs. "Most of our prisoners, for example, come from the pool of
530,000 adult New Zealanders who are either totally or functionally
illiterate."
Mr MacCormick said it would be better to identify "at
risk" children at or before birth, instead of waiting for them to be
picked up a few years down the track at Child, Youth and Family Services
or the Youth Court. He proposed for those at-risk children that slipped
through the cracks at birth the assessment would catch them at specific
age intervals (two, six, 10 and 14), and would in essence be emotional,
psychological and physical health and welfare checks.
9 March 2006
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3597289a11,00.html
home
/
Previous feature
|