BEHAVIOUR
Difficult to predict behaviour
Anticipating whether a young offender will commit another
act of violence is a bit like “predicting the weather,”' a psychiatrist
testified at a release hearing for the teen convicted of the fatal 1999
high school shooting in Taber, Alta. “When certain cloud formations gather, it's pretty safe to say that
it's going to rain,” said Dr. Clive Chamberlain, a forensic
psychiatrist, yesterday. “But weathermen are always careful to say
there's only a chance.”
Whether or not the teen responsible for killing 16-year-old Jason
Lang in April, 1999, at W.R. Myers High School will commit another act
of violence if released has been discussed by a number of expert
witnesses during a hearing that has stretched over several months. Sentenced to three years in jail in 2000, the teen's sentence expired
on Nov. 17, 2003. He was scheduled to be released until the Crown
attorney's office asked for a review.
The boy was 14 at the time of the shooting, and is now 19 years old.
He has been held at the Brookside Youth Centre in Cobourg since early
2002. Some psychiatrists have painted a picture of a tormented, bullied
teen who reacted with extreme violence but would be unlikely to do so
again. Others have called him a psychopath, due to the fact he has shown
little remorse for Jason Lang's murder or the impact his crime has had
on others.
Dr. Chamberlain does not believe the teen is a psychopath, and spent
much of yesterday's cross-examination characterizing the boy's childhood
behaviour as irrelevant to his chances of reoffending. “There is a tremendous pressure on people in my profession to explain
this type of behaviour after the fact,'” he said when asked about
reports the teen had been a truant, involved in fights and arson at a
young age. “There is a tendency to look for a cause under every
behavioral stone.”
Dr. Chamberlain met with the young offender in early November, just
weeks before his sentence was to expire. The forensic psychiatrist is an expert in youth criminal behaviour
and has dealt with more than 90 young murderers. Dr. Chamberlain said the young man is not trying to fool people into
believing “he's a nice guy,” and said he believes the violent fantasies
and boredom that plagued his adolescence have disappeared.
Dr. Chamberlain said that with supervision, stimulation and increased
self-esteem created by an end to the bullying he was subjected to as a
child, he would be very unlikely to reoffend. The teen told Dr. Chamberlain he would take a stone mason job if he
is released and try to make friends, and said it would be “pretty
great” to find a girlfriend.
But he also said he would rather stay confined if there was a chance
he might hurt someone else, explaining that he “would probably commit
myself.”
For the teen's family, the procedure has been at times too much to
take. “My son was depressed, my son was terrified,” said his mother, as
the Crown attorney characterized the teen as a psychopath. “No one's saying he didn't do something wrong,” added his sister,
one of nine children in the family. “But why aren't they trying to help
him?”
The teen has been held at the Brookside Youth Centre in Cobourg since
early 2002 testified the teen has not received anger management
sessions, vocational training or even regular psychiatric or
psychological counselling.
Dr. Chamberlain has said that with supervision, stimulation and
increased self-esteem created by an end to the bullying he was subjected
to as a child, he would be very unlikely to reoffend.
Siri Agrell National Post
26 January 2004
http://www.canada.com/national/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=df5adc97-cf4e-4b49-b9a4-9aae5bf18dcc
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