Camille Clarke

Mar­i­an Tay­lor, di­rec­tor of the Rape Cri­sis So­ci­ety, says mag­is­trates do not show an in­ter­est in cas­es of do­mes­tic vi­o­lence and this needs to change with work­shops and ed­u­ca­tion pro­grammes. Tay­lor was speak­ing dur­ing the com­mem­o­ra­tion of the con­clu­sion of the 16 days of ac­tivism on the elim­i­na­tion of gen­der-based vi­o­lence at City Hall, Port-of-Spain.

The fo­rum was a col­lab­o­ra­tion be­tween the Rape Cri­sis So­ci­ety (RCS) and the Coali­tion Against Do­mes­tic Vi­o­lence (CADV). Tay­lor said the court was the on­ly medi­um to treat with do­mes­tic vi­o­lence in a pro­fes­sion­al man­ner. She added: "I am of the view that mag­is­trates are not in­ter­est­ed in those re­ports. It is a sys­tem where your mat­ter can be trans­ferred to an­oth­er court or traf­fic court and on­ly a mag­is­trate who has a keen in­ter­est should be in those courts."

Tay­lor said every­one should take an in­ter­est in peo­ple who were vic­tims of do­mes­tic vi­o­lence, even neigh­bours. She added: "Chil­dren be­come dys­func­tion­al at an ear­ly age and end up be­ing part of our crim­i­nal so­ci­ety. Do­mes­tic vi­o­lence is every­body's busi­ness.

You can't count on the Gov­ern­ment or ju­di­cia­ry alone. You need to take re­spon­si­bil­i­ty and re­port it. If we were in that sit­u­a­tion you would like some­one to as­sist you." Tay­lor said there were and are work­shops which in­clud­ed mag­is­trates to sen­si­tise them to the is­sues.

Dr Var­ma Deyals­ingh, board mem­ber of As­pire (Ad­vo­cates for Safe Par­ent­hood) and gen­er­al sec­re­tary of the As­so­ci­a­tion of Psy­chi­a­trists, said vic­tims should leave abu­sive re­la­tion­ships. He not­ed there was a rise in vi­o­lence world­wide which had many con­tribut­ing fac­tors.

"We are not just see­ing prob­lems with im­pulse con­trol. It is easy to act out emo­tion­al stress which is a part of im­pul­sive ag­gres­sion and vi­o­lent be­hav­iour," he added. Deyals­ingh said the re­cent vi­o­lent act against a child in which her cheeks were al­leged­ly bit­ten by a rel­a­tive could have been due to his child­hood, jeal­ousy to­wards the child, patho­log­i­cal prob­lems, use of il­lic­it drugs, lack of food and sex.

He said vi­o­lent be­hav­iour al­so could al­so be caused by a chem­i­cal im­bal­ance or a stroke. "A per­pe­tra­tor could have lost it in a fit of rage and act out on the child or to get back at the moth­er. We are all hu­man and we can lose it. We need to analyse it," he said.

Deyals­ingh said more shel­ters for the abused were need­ed and warned that one con­se­quence of abuse was de­pres­sion. He added: "A child could al­so be de­pressed and the so­cial sys­tem should have shel­ters and oth­er things in place to deal with this up­com­ing tsuna­mi of de­pres­sion.

We are see­ing im­pulse-con­trol rage, road rage and vi­o­lence and this could be due to a mind­set. "Leave, put them in their place or get out of the sit­u­a­tion, or it will form in­to a habit." Deyals­ingh said work­ing women were un­der pres­sure and women al­so suf­fered from de­pres­sion.

Pa­tri­cia Jes­sop, gen­er­al man­ag­er of CADV, said mag­is­trates and po­lice need­ed to be trained on the is­sue of do­mes­tic vi­o­lence. She said: "Mem­bers of the pro­tec­tive ser­vices need to em­pha­sise to peo­ple who are abused and all the ser­vices need to be aware.

"Men need to stand up and help oth­er bud­dies. Abused peo­ple are frag­ile be­cause of con­trol. It has mul­ti-fac­to­r­i­al as­pects. Con­fi­dence is stripped away and you will have no self-will." Mar­cus Kissoon, an­oth­er di­rec­tor of the RCS, said in 2011 there were 278 vic­tims seek­ing treat­ment at the cen­tre, 25 per cent of whom were men.