Thousands of Jamaicans turn up at police stations across the island each year to report that they are being abused at home.
In the last six years, some 37,758 domestic violence reports have been made, the majority of which involved intimate partners.
According to police data, there were 8,714 cases of domestic violence reported in 2022 alone, the highest in the last six years.
REPEAT OFFENDERS
Some 2,600 persons who turned up at Domestic Violence Intervention Care Centres (DVICARE) or police stations island-wide last year had visited these locations on more than one occasion, but they refused any form of intervention outside of the police taking a report.
Deputy Superintendent of Police Jacqueline Dillon, who heads the Domestic Violence Intervention Care programme, including the network of Domestic Violence Intervention Centres islandwide, noted that the majority of the victims are females, and in several cases, they are sympathetic towards their abuser.
“Many victims oftentimes are reliant on the abuser for support and has no other support system,” she said while pointing out that, “[There is] fear also as emotional and financial abuse often times erodes a victim’s confidence and ability to seek help.”
The number of reports is not the only thing increasing, as there were more domestic violence-related deaths in 2022 compared to 2021. According to the data, 70 Jamaicans lost their lives in domestic disputes in 2022, and 67 suffered a similar fate in 2021.
There are currently ten DVICARE centres on the island, with plans to establish a centre in each police division to make interventions more accessible to those in need. The first centre was established in 2018 at the Area 5 Headquarters, located on the compound of the Constant Spring Police Station.
St. Catherine North, which includes the parish capital, SpanishTown, and the townships of Bog Walk, Linstead, Ewarton, Sligoville, and Lluidas Vale, had the most cases of domestic violence murders and case reports in 2021 and 2022.
There have been 28 deaths in total in that division over the last two years.
Among those who lost their lives in domestic disputes in 2022 was Alicia Patience, the mother of two, who was allegedly stabbed to death by her boyfriend in Lluidas Vale on August 22. Her attacker turned himself in to the police. Four days later, 34-year-old Nickeisha DaCosta-Walters was repeatedly stabbed by her husband in the Berkshire Hall District in St Catherine. The couple shared a 10-year-old son, who was also injured in the attack.
DSP Dillion pointed to a high number ofchildren being directly or indirectly affected by incidents of domestic violence and made an appeal for family members and neighbours to report the cases when they come to their attention.
“There is still a need for greater involvement and education in communities for prevention. So there is the need for neighbours to reach out more for help,” she said.
ASHAMED AND AFRAID
Counselling psychologist Pastor Osbourne Bailey finds that the victims sometimes won’t report the cases themselves because they are ashamed or afraid.
“There is a culture of silence; there is also a culture of tolerance; and a culture of victim blaming where people accuse you of causing it to come on yourself, and these cultures programme people or condition them to feel that it is okay or that it is going to look bad if you leave,” he said.
Pastor Osbourne has interacted with many of these individuals at his assembly at Covenant Life Christian Church in Kingston and also as the head of the Victim Services Division (VSD) where he worked from 1998 until his retirement last year. The VSD is an arm of the Ministry of Justice and provides therapeutic support and crisis intervention for victims of crime.
Sometimes, there is sympathy for the abuser because a woman might not want the father of her children to be arrested, or she might feel it is her responsibility to cover up the abuse because she doesn’t want to embarrass the man.
“That’s one of the things that has led to a feeling of frustration and oftentimes, unfortunately, unwillingness to provide support for the women because when the prosecution time comes, they don’t show up, or at the time when they are to press charges, they say, “We only want [him to be given] a warning;” so they are the ones who will intervene,” he explained.
ALL CROSS-SECTIONS OF SOCIETY IMPACTED
He said some victims of abuse are in denial and remain committed to the relationship, while others are defiant and are fighting back. Then there are those who feel defeated and continue to accept the abuse because they feel trapped in the cycle of being a victim. Persons from all cross-sections of society are represented in these three categories.
“So pastors, judges, police, and pastor’s wives, women in high society or low society, not just inner city [are included],” Pastor Osbourne told the Freedom Come Rain Newspaper.
The pastor who provides counselling services at the faith-based Family Life Ministries finds that, on occasion, the church’s response is to protect its image, and so the abuse of a Christian woman, for example, by her spouse, continues unabated. Still, he noted that several churches do provide a comprehensive programme to encourage non-violent, loving, intimate relationships between couples in addition to counselling services.
He said the church can further assist by providing an emergency system that allows an abused person to reach out for help. Those who come in contact with the victim should believe them and be patient, as they might not readily talk about the abuse because they feel ashamed. Effort should also be made to reach out to the abuser because in some instances they too have been victims.