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Caribbean faces domestic violence challenge

By Avia Ustanny, Freelance Writer

The article below is a special production distributed through Panoscope, a series of Panos Caribbean. This article is a part of the UNIFEM Gender Equality project being implemented by Panos Caribbean. It is made freely available to your media and we encourage publishing and redistribution, giving credit to Panos Caribbean and UNIFEM. We appreciate feedback.

Kingston, 30 November 2006 (Panos) - More than a decade after many English-speaking Caribbean courts were granted the power to issue restraining orders to victims of domestic violence, and other laws have been crafted to reduce the phenomenon, the murder and disability rate attributed to domestic violence is still a troubling problem.

Despite a numerical decrease over the last decade in domestic violence the police files in Jamaica are filled with the resulting carnage each week.

Towards the end of November five people were injured and two killed in incidents of domestic violence. In one case, Michael Thorpe, a 47 year old resident of Kew Road in Kingston beat his girlfriend over the head with a sledge hammer after accusing her of having an affair. Her daughter was also beaten when she tried to intervene. He later locked himself in a room and set his house on fire.

In turn, Trinidad and Tobago’s National Security Minister, Senator Martin Joseph has said that the last quarter of 2006 has been the bloodiest especially regarding domestic violence which has figured prominently in the murder figures. “As it stands now there are levels of homicides for which we cannot take control over (at this time) and those are the domestic related ones," said Joseph while addressing the Senate earlier this year.

His statement comes two years after the 2004 Amnesty International Annual Report, (covering worldwide human rights abuses from January to December 2003) which singled out rising violence against women in Trinidad and Tobago for the first time.

Action needed Meanwhile, Gender consultant in Kingston Dr. Glenda Simms is stating that Caribbean nations must deal with poverty eradication as a first measure in support of laws against domestic violence.

“Many of the people who fall below the poverty line are female headed households. Poor women who have to take responsibility for children will be dependent on men for the next bus fare and the next dinner.”

Proper housing and education also needed to be addressed by governments to help solve the problem.

“Young men are not getting the kind of education which they need to be employed and turn them into self respecting individuals,” she said. “Young people caught in the cycle of poverty are the people becoming more violent and killing more and more people.”

The challenge to reduce domestic violence is a pervasive one throughout the Caribbean.

In St. Kitts, on November 6, 2006 the death of National Bank employee Michelle Veronica Weekes-Benjamin reportedly “sent shockwaves across the Federation.” Among the persons arrested for the crime were her husband, Leroy Benjamin Jr. and his brother William Benjamin. Michelle’s body was found in the incomplete septic tank of a Rosemary Lane building two days after she was reported missing.

According to University of the West Indies professor and gender expert in Trinidad, Rhoda Reddock, the reasons for the pervasive problem of domestic violence include:

1. the increasing violence in the society in general,
2. the result of the normalization of violence in the US dominated media;
3. the increase in drug trafficking and the accompanying gun violence;
4. the high demands for conspicuous consumption characteristic of the current neo-liberal economic context.

“In Trinidad, there is also widespread alcohol and drug addiction with inadequate facilities for prevention or treatment. Many of the most gruesome murders and sexual violence are linked to mental disease brought about by drug and alcohol addiction, respectively,” she said.

In Jamaica, while there appears to have been a decline in the figures relating to domestic violence and domestic crisis, the issue still remains a significant problem.

Domestic violence and crisis rates in Jamaica

Source: Women’s Crisis Centre/Woman Inc, Kingston.

According to Mrs. Tracy-Ann Blythe, counseller at Women Incorporated, the numbers are fluctuating.” Sometimes they go up, sometimes they decrease. What happens also is that some cases are not reported.”

But she believes that a declining trend will continue because awareness has increased about domestic violence issues. “It is now in the open and persons are getting an understanding that this should not be. There are also more agencies offering counseling and persons are no longer afraid of asking for help,” she said. Mrs. Faith St. Catherine of the Women’s Resource and Outreach centre in Kingston noted that in the inner-city communities served by her organization, the incidence of domestic violence was not declining. “I do not see it going down. There is a culture of abuse, especially among the inner-city poor. A lot of parents grow up being abused by their own parents out of frustration and anger and they continue to do the same to their children. Mothers do not have the skills to raise children differently.

“Girls who do not receive enough love form their mothers succumb to the first offer. They also remain in abusive relationships because they have not experienced a good relationship,” Mrs. St. Catherine said.

Similarly, a recent US department of state report on Barbados noted that violence and abuse against women continued to be a social problem. The 2005 report said that spousal abuse remained a significant problem during the year, despite legal protections against spousal rape for women holding a court-issued divorce decree, separation order, or non-molestation order. The law prohibits rape, and the maximum penalty for it is life imprisonment. The report said, “The law prohibits domestic violence, provides protection to all the family members, including men and children, and applies equally to marriages and to common law relationships. Penalties depend on the severity of the charges and range from a fine for first-time offenders (unless the injury is serious) up to the death penalty for a killing. The courts heard a number of cases of domestic violence against women involving assault or injury. Victims may request restraining orders, which the courts often issued. The courts can sentence an offender to jail for breaching such an order. The police have a Victim Support Unit, made up of civilian volunteers, which offered assistance primarily to female victims of violent crimes.” Barbadian Professor Elise le Franc of the University of the West Indies, speaking in October 2006 at PAHO Unifem awards, stated that HIV/AIDS and interpersonal violence are currently the biggest killers of those under 19 years of age. The possible linkages between these two phenomena need to be explored, she said.

In Trinidad, UWI professor and gender expert Rhoda Reddock states that Femicide has been a specific aspect of T&T’s violence pattern. “This is sometimes accompanied by male suicide. This declined for some years but is increasing once again, although the accompanying male violence is less visible.”

Change in attitude towards violence against women

But according to Reddock, there has been a change in attitude towards violence against women.

“I don’t think the passing of the Bill is the significant milestone, rather it was the activism of women and other interested persons led by the women’s movement that made first the Sexual Offences Act of 1986, then the Domestic Violence Act of 1991 come into being. Both Acts have since been revised.”

The change in attitude, she noted is in relation to the de-legitimization of male partner violence against women, something which was accepted as a man’s right in the past; a greater awareness of child sexual abuse and of battered wife syndrome (legal precedent set).

It is a view that is shared by Hilary Nicholson, Coordinator of Women’s Media Watch in Jamaica.

“There is quite a lot more awareness that domestic violence, ie beating, battering, hitting, and other kinds of abuse, is WRONG. People are more aware that it is NOT the right thing to do - before there was not even the awareness that it was necessarily wrong!” says Nicholson. “People still do not generally, know that there is specific legislation that can offer protection. Therefore, while there is much more awareness that it is not ok, there is NOT awareness, generally, that it is a offence under the law. There is more awareness of this than before, but it has not spread across the population.”

In the 2004 Amnesty report on Trinidad, complaints were made about the disbanded Community Policing Division and the closure of mediation centers. It was also said that when cases are brought to court, victims face a legal system that remains hostile to them and many cases are hamstrung by poor evidence-taking. A 2002 US state department report on Trinidad said that physical abuse of women continued to be a significant problem. In Jamaica in 2004, domestic fights leading to homicides ran a close second among the list of top motives for murder with 29 per cent or some 1,401 of the total number of murders for the given period.

In response Sergeant Samuel Taylor, officer in charge of the Mediation Unit in Kingston said the bulk of these murders took place among poor families who lacked problem-solving skills and were depressed by poverty.

“Domestic violence is as a result of the pervasive hopelessness. They don't have the means to deal with their problems,` he said.

Faith St. Catherine in Kingston Jamaica states that supports systems for victims of domestic violence are largely missing. “Many women who are now more aware would like to leave their situation but cannot leave. The crisis centre is overwhelmed by the number of people who call them. We need homes to take them.

She also noted that a concerted effort needs to be made to help men to express their anger and frustration in an appropriate way. “We tell boys not to cry, so men do not talk about how the feel. We need to teach our children to express their emotions in an appropriate way.”

For Reddock, in addition to changes in the legal framework in Trinidad, there needs to be strengthening social intervention programmes in communities and schools to identify children at risk prior to them becoming violent.

Other interventions, she said, could be:

• An emergency programme targeting alcohol and drug addiction – prevention and treatment with the most up-to-date methods; public education on addiction, including for parents, children and young adults of both sexes;
• Greater attend to gender sensitization and education of social workers, guidance counselors, teachers, police officers etc. to facilitate new understandings and approaches to male violence and violence against women.