Child abuse

Tiger Bay writes about the 436 cases of reported child abuse or neglect in Bermuda last year:

"That's a terrible statistic for a community the size of Bermuda - that's more than 4% of our school age children!

Abuse and neglect lead to intense anger and hopelessness in children, and certainly underlie many of the negative problems that Bermuda suffers today, including the growth of violence, poor school performance, antisocial behavior, drug abuse, and gangs. On top of this, child abuse is often an under-reported statistic so we may only be seeing the tip of the iceberg."

BermudaSucks is appealing for help tackling the problem too.

Comments

[Simon on 28.03.06 at 08:22]

With the attitude of one of Bermuda's leading barristers on child sex - is it really surprising? Sad!

[Martin on 28.03.06 at 09:38]

Plenty of time on my hands - happy to help if I can.

[Tiger Bay on 28.03.06 at 09:44]

In my view, this is Bermuda's most pressing problem. We must focus on it, as it will only get worse as these children grow up and become parents themselves. It is not an easy one to tackle, as it is intertwined with other social issues like underage and single parents, housing and employment, and drugs.

This is just a sliver but I would have preferred to see the $11 million that's going to international cricket to have been invested in 1) youth and family services (including parenting classes) and 2) youth activities such as sports leagues.

[Raptor on 28.03.06 at 09:54]

I came across an expression while reading recently: “Um gunna slide you upside the head!” Growing up I’d heard people say to their kids, in public, all the time, “Um gunna slep you upside the haid.” Turns out “slide” means punch. This is progress?

The book, Unequal Childhoods: Class, Race, and Family Life, by Prof. Annette Lareau at Temple Univ., makes clear many parents regard this type of dealing with their children (I’m not calling it “discipline”) as normal. I.e., they do not reason or discuss so much as direct and punish, often physically. This is normal to them. Moreover, they might also teach their children to defend themselves in ways that are contrary to school rules. If there is a tiff at school, a child is often told to wait until the teacher isn’t looking and beat the other kid.

The author points out that these behaviours are part of a package of differences in social class, i.e. cultures, across racial/ethnic lines. Very often social problems are examined as being related to how much money is being spent per child in the schools; the student teacher ratios; family income; single vs. two-parent family; etc. But it seems that significant differences in child rearing, starting from a very early age, have profound effects in terms of what children are able to do in school.

If the child is not being read to much; if the child is left to amuse himself/herself; if the child doesn’t have many organized activities outside the home; if the child is not involved in discussions--that child is not going to be well prepared to deal with adults, other than family (maybe), or to encounter learning. The child may do what he or she is told to do at home, but that child is not going to develop a feeling of entitlement, i.e., that he or she is worth taking seriously, can have a point of view, can ask or even demand help from another adult, can discuss in class, etc. How can such a child defend himself/herself in the world?

In “A Poverty of the Mind,” an Op-Ed piece in the NYTimes last Sunday, Prof. of Sociology at Harvard, Orlando Patterson, focuses on “cool-pose culture” of young black men in the U.S. Black students told Patterson they found this hip-hop subculture “immensely fulfilling…it also brought them a great deal of respect from white youths.” Patterson points out these black youth have high self-esteem because of it, not low. This subculture has “powerful support from some of America’s largest corporations,” and, he says, “young white Americans are very much into these things [too], but selectively; they know when it is time to turn off Fifty Cent and get out the SAT prep book.” Patterson attributes young black men’s thinking such culture “is all there is” to being a “major factor in their disconnection from the socioeconomic mainstream.” He also stresses the need to look at certain aspects of social problems in the context of the history of slavery and Jim Crow.

Significantly, both Lareau and Patterson stress that cultural attributes must be examined. It may be that there is a dire need in Bermuda for parenting classes, just to start with. Getting to the point where a child can eventually work for IB is really an extremely sophisticated process, and Bermuda parents need help to make transitions to that kind of culture (or other successful types of employment). Clearly, the startling fact that over $18,000 a year is spent on each public school student, and the student teacher ratio is an almost unheard of 7:1, tells us this can’t all be laid at the door of the schools.

[Tiger Bay on 28.03.06 at 10:28]

Studies in the US have shown that prenatal parenting classes, combined with postnatal followup, dramatically reduce the incidence of abuse. It's well worth the investment.

[SmokingGun on 28.03.06 at 16:10]

Tiger Bay - I think you are right. This could very well be just the tip of the iceberg. As important as it is we take care of the weak, the infirm and the old the number one priority in a country such as ours is to take care of the defenceless children. Too often so much of it gets swept under the rug. We have some serious issues here.

[Shelley on 28.03.06 at 16:29]

Tiger Bay,
I agree that the statistic is appalling, to put it in perspective there are approximately 1500 children in foster care here in the Durham region in Canada where I live, an area that encompases approximately 200,000 persons. Currently there are not enough foster families to support these children and the situation has to be quite dire to remove the child from the home. I would strongly advocate that those who have an interest in children in Bermuda volunteer their time as a foster parent or mentor, I have seen first hand that it makes a tremendous difference in the life of a child.

[jake on 28.03.06 at 17:08]

I know I am the law and order hawk, but I truly believe that our approach to violence and abuse against children is to protect the perp.

It is all well and good to say that technicalities are the safeguard of us all, but they have no value when there is a child and a predator, and the sentence for abuse is measured in months not years, or decades.

I am for locking these perps up and that is the end of it. I am even for shipping them to a jail overseas like Gitmo or Red Fence, so that it is a cheaper solution.

I have little sympathy for those who steal a child's innocence.

[Shelley on 28.03.06 at 17:18]

Jake,
As much as I am the left wing liberal on the legal side I agree. I never knew there was a thing as an "unsalvagable" child until I became involved with the Durham's Children Aid. There are many children out there whose lives have been totally destroyed by sexual abuse and neglect who cannot even be integrated into a foster family, they are placed in group homes or institutions. How is that for a "life sentence" penalty for the child.

[SmokingGun on 28.03.06 at 17:27]

"I am for locking these perps up and that is the end of it. I am even for shipping them to a jail overseas like Gitmo or Red Fence, so that it is a cheaper solution." - Jake

Build it and they will come.

We should go in with all the carribean islands and build an Alcatraz on some remote shark infested island. Ship all our low lifes there. Or better still, a barbed wire camp somewhere up in the northern reaches of Canada where they can freeze their butts and the grizzlies can keep them company should they try to wander.

[Reality on 28.03.06 at 18:08]

Limey, thanks for the link to our campaign on Bermuda Sucks. Anyone with skills & resources to volunteer can contact Mike or I through the Bermuda Sucks forum. If the online community can make a difference, it will be great. 436 is a big number. I don't know that it matters how it compares with other countries so much as it matter that there are 436 lives being ruined. And that is just the primary and pre-school aged children - I haven't seen numbers for older kids.

Smoking Gun, I like the Alcatraz idea... could be useful for other types of offenders too. I'd also like to see more programmes designed to intervene earlier. Abuse is often a cycle. Abusers often began as the abused. By dealing much better with abused children, the cycle may be broken before the next generation is destroyed.

[Shelley on 30.03.06 at 09:39]

Reality,
I really do think the Bermuda stats matter in context to other countries in the sense that it is always relevant to be able to benchmark and to understand societal trends. However I agree that 436 incidents are too much.

[Reality on 31.03.06 at 04:36]

Shelley,

I guess it is interesting to benchmark - but even if numbers were in line with other nations it would not be reason to be complacent. I think in this type of offence, it is very difficult to have accurate stats as well. It is not purely a Bermuda problem, and as the article on Bermuda Sucks points out, it is certainly not restricted to any particular social demographic - even though many would like to think so.

I'm glad to report a couple of expressions of interest in supporting the campaign (Martin, please do get in touch via the Sucks forum or via the webmaster - and thanks for being quick to offer your time). I'll post on any progress of the campaign. Limey, again, thanks for mentioning such an important issue. It isn't always an easy one to discuss, but I do believe it is one of the most important things we can do for the next generation.

[stuart J Hayward on 31.03.06 at 05:17]

I agree with the calls for parenting intervention. New parents have learned most if not all their parenting skills from their own parents as reinforced by nearby models (mostly TV sitcoms and soap operas for a significant proportion of our families).

In the early 1980's, my then wife Angie and I arranged for the instruction of twenty locals as teachers of Parent Effectiveness Training. We were convinced then that parenting intervention was vital (Angie was a primary school teacher and witnessed first hand the destructive effect on learning from the punitive mindset pervading many families). I still hear from individuals for whom the PET course made a tremendous difference in their parenting. We tried to get the PET model accepted as routine conflict-resolution training within the school system. This was rejected (even vilified) by the spare-the-rod-and-spoil-the-child set.

Society requires training for plumbers, bus drivers, you name it. But for the MOST IMPORTANT job on the planet, the only requirement is sperm delivery.

I applaud efforts to cope with the after-effects of abuse. The key in my view is prevention, via routine instruction in parenting/conflict-resolution skills for EVERY child. My gut feeling is this can only occur in our schools. That's the only place where we can assure every future parent is equipped.

[Bill Cook on 31.03.06 at 08:55]

I think you are right on target Stuart.

As you know identifying the problem ie easier than solving it.

I feel the crux of the matter is in getting into parental control and responsibility which is a world wide problem but interestingly in Asian countries the respect that children have for their parents is very different from the West.
Also it continues with great care for the elderly etc and shows we can learn from another culture.

As you say we need training for all manner of jobs but there are no quaifications for parenthood.

Therein lies the dilemma because when you enter this arena it is a Hornets nest if it is seen for government controlling behaviour of individuals.

We see that for example young girls getting pregnant at age 16 and younger which means they had sex prior to the age of consent yet how many males get charged with statutary rape ?

This whole subject is so very important yet it appears to me that it never gets the attention it deserves with the dire consequences we are now experiencing regrettably.

[Shelley on 31.03.06 at 10:25]

Reality,
For such a serious issue I would never advocate complacency. But when you benchmark you understand trends and it helps you get to the root cause of the problem. It also allows you to look for the strategies other nations have used in combating problems with a similar root cause(s) to your own.

[Reality on 31.03.06 at 22:39]

Shelley, that's a good way to look at using the numbers, you've won me over. Now, if only governments - not only Bermuda's - could apply that kind of sense.