Child Abuse: What's Still Up With That? (Audio Blog)

April is observed as Child Abuse Prevention Month and today's audio blog will sound out my stance. Have a listen.

Transcript

Growing up, there was no promotion of any month or even day for the prevention of child abuse. I am not saying that there was no such organization involved in this work or that they were not carrying out promotions of that nature.

If they were, clearly the information was not filtering down to the "abused" such as myself.

Listening to the radio is a favourite past time of a good number of Jamaicans. In my youth, it was possibly the premier form of entertainment. I certainly listened to the radio for many hours a day. Not once can I recall hearing a programme or a public service announcement advising me that:

• The merciless beatings my mother laid on me or any other child dwelling in our house was not deserved and therefore justified. 
• That the neighborhood man who would fondle me was doing something against the law. Was there even a law back then? 
• My older playmates were out of line and completely inappropriate when they were introducing me to "what big people do" 

No doctor asked me how I ended up with a knife wound in the back of my leg while he was stitching it up. I definitely do not recall any social worker questioning me about the chunk of glass that had to be cut out of my butt in the wee hours of the morning at the medical centre,

Having worked in the Government information service in Jamaica in my late twenties, I became very knowledgeable about the laws and issues related to child abuse. These have now been on the books and programmes are in place to heightened the awareness of children and adults on the matter.

So heightened is the awareness, especially outside of Jamaica, that as a parent I struck my child thrice in her life and only when she turned 18 I stopped expecting to be arrested.

In Canada, to look at a child for longer than a quick glance could land you in hot waters. I am an extremely touchy-feely kind of person, love to hug and call everyone "darling," "sweetheart," "honey," "baby girl," etc. Over the decade plus of my citizenship and residency in my second country, I have learned to restrain myself. I worked in the correctional system and facilities and know the penalties for even being falsely accused.

Actually, I remember a man who I will now describe as an hardened criminal, something that I do not often do, who was besides himself after reading a typographical error on one of his reports that created the impression that he had a sexual offence against a child.

Child molestators were not treated with any compassion in Canadian prisons. They are not respected no matter their former status in life or achievements. My question then is why are there still so many incidents of child abuse in Jamaica and even in Canada?

I'm speaking of physical and sexual abuse. Is the problem that agencies have spent way more time on messaging rather than behavioral change? I have listened to and participated in countless debates on whether a sexual offender, particularly child sexual offender and rapists, can change.

The jury is still out on castration.

In my own journey, the experiences of parental, physical and childhood sexual abuse have made me the woman I am today. Yet surely, we have developed enough as humans to be able to find less explorative ways to strengthen our children?

Evil is the absence of good it is said and I agree. Evil is also the absence of a heart of compassion, to be so full of one's self to sacrifice and stomp on others privacy and personhood in such manners.

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