Curbing Intimate Partner Violence in Jamaica- The Way Forward

Curbing Intimate Partner Violence in Jamaica- The Way ForwardShe said no on March 19, 2020 when the police gave her an opportunity to make a report about being beaten up by her lover. The beating happened during daytime in the street in their community, seen by onlookers and a video recording was shared. Still, the lady refused to start a legal process that would protect her.

Observers in and out of the social services and justice sectors may be forgiven if they consider a probable life story. She lives with low self esteem having grown up being abused and belittled, she will be beaten by him again and again, her future situation will be an addition to incidents of criminal assault, substance abuse, child neglect and child abuse and maybe homicide and suicide. I hope not, but it can be argued that this is what their experience has taught them; but what does statistical research tell us about intimate partner violence in Jamaica?


What we Know – Situation Analysis UNDP had done a 2012 report indicating that 15.4 per cent of women who were victims of gender based violence reported the matter to the police. The Women's Health Survey 2016 authored by Carol Watson Williams, published jointly by the Inter American Development Bank (IDB) the Statistical Institute of Jamaica (STATIN) and UN Women dutifully mentioned that report, but went on to say, "Jamaica has no reliable estimate of the prevalence of violence against women, including intimate partner violence. The statistics do not allow an examination of intimate partner violence as a discrete category of interest." 

Watson Williams pursued scientific data, using a model that was developed for CARICOM to sample 2,145 households from rural and urban communities and included all parishes. Her results, from that sample, is a strong indicator that lifetime prevalence of intimate partner physical and/or sexual violence against Jamaican women is 27.8 per cent. If you use the traditional way to round up numbers, that would be one third of the population, but UN Women reports this as one quarter of the population. In 2017, UN Women said that one third of women, worldwide have this experience. It would then appear that Jamaica falls within the global norm.

Watson Williams' Woman's Health Survey 2016 identified the three strongest risk predictors of intimate partner violence as: childhood experience of violence; controlling behaviour of a husband/partner; alcohol use by the perpetrator.

Institutional data from hospital sources quoted in the survey show that between 2013 and 2014, 2,975 patients were treated for injuries resulting from assaults. Of this amount, 2,677 (89%) were women and girls, 1,765 (59%) being females between 10 and 19 years old.The survey also mentions a Draft National Strategic Action Plan with Strategic Priority Areas, that if followed, is expected to create an environment in which gender-based violence is eliminated, or at the very least, significantly reduced. The highlights of the plan are set out below:Preventive actions to re-programme the cultural practices away from acceptance and tolerance of gender-based violence, to one in which there are significant social, cultural and legal disincentives to violence against women and girls.Improving services available to victims and improving investigations, prosecution and enforcement, are also expected to help reduce the prevalence of gender-based violence.Jamaica already has in place many of the recommendations of the WHO to reduce gender based violence such as legislation and the promotion of gender equality in employment land ownership and inheritance.

In summary, the survey shows us that nearly 90% of assault victims seen by hospitals are female; about 1/3 of females experience intimate partner violence and 15% of victims make a report to the police.



Where Do We Go From Here? The Prime Minister's 2020 Budget Presentation was delivered on March 19, 2020, the same day that the battered woman in Westmoreland rejected the opportunity to bring charges against the man who beats her and hurls insults at her in public, and in whom she places her affections.The leader’s presentation stated the work that is being done to reduce violence in the society such as converting police stations into modern, citizen-friendly workspaces and bringing in more crime fighting technology. He also noted that to control violence the social culture has to change.

His remarks were focused on areas that are currently under the Zones of Special Operation (ZOSOs) when he said, "While we can reduce murders by controlling the space, controlling violence is more difficult as it has become a part of how we interact and behaviours have to change. We have seen that the change in the environment - improved physical infrastructure, waste disposal practices, willingness to resolve conflicts through restorative justice - has had a lasting positive impact."Watson Williams' survey noted that domestic violence has no social boundaries, so I can tentatively foresee that these very important and much needed measures in violence prone communities will still not significantly reduce intimate partner violence.

Last year, the Wife of the Prime Minister moved to make Jamaica deliver the pilot of a regional Caribbean Women and Child Initiative (CariWaC) initiative, that is specifically targeted at reducing intimate partner violence. The vision is to have a space in the community where a poor woman can receive empowerment services from trained health specialists. The initiative became the subject of severe criticism because of the timing of the launch of the initiative for Fathers' Day, and its laudable mission is still to be realised.

Let us return to more useful material from the Women's Health Survey and what it can teach. The recommendations are precise:Strategic and ongoing research and application of the findings is needed to make the National Strategic Action Plan on Gender-based Violence successful;
Increase the capacity of the police and health services to help women who are ready to receive help;·         The survey suggests that health and justice professionals can and do identify victims and make referrals, but sadly, half of these women reject help until they are broken down from abuse, in desperation, they become receptive. Indeed, counselling centres and shelters in each parish are vital to building up confidence in women who are at risk or who are already victims. Women and girls, the survey says, speak about their experiences to people who can actually offer help, and who do help when the women are mentally and emotionally ready to accept that help. CariWaC hopes to be a part of this solution;·         The move to empower the justice system to press charges on a suspected abuser when the victim has not made a report should be viewed as an intrusion on an individual's rights. One woman's personal terror is not a risk to a population. Our society has made a long journey towards increasing self-actualisation. Forcing an adult female to participate in a legal process for her own well-being is reducing her status to that of a minor, a person who is not able to make her own decisions or as property. Time will decide whether we accept this as a society, or not.Structured and sustained behaviour change campaigns that continue the shift in thinking around gender norms and roles to create a society in which violence against women, including intimate partner violence, is openly rejected and firmly addressed.Thanks to local, Jamaican research, such as the Women's Health Survey, and international surveys, there is sufficient information to inform broad decisions that can reduce intimate partner violence in a population. The balance of my essay is how I would structure a communication campaign where violence is openly rejected and firmly addressed.


Planning For Results The task of the campaign should be to rapidly motivate the influential segments of the society to socially reject the beating up of spouses and partners as any kind of acceptable behaviour. There are many valid models of behaviour change that could be examined and adapted for specific communities. These models, in different ways, consider the reality of prevailing lifestyles, and the importance and role of self-discovery and reflection. The models allow for some degree of relapse and do encourage consistency and refreshing action. Perhaps there is no right way and no wrong way, just the way that is best for the health of the person and the community. The health sciences have professionals who competently deliver on these theories and have models for prediction and they make good theoretical sense and have yielded encouraging results.

Alongside this, I also have noted the tremendous resources of time, people and money that these theories employ and which need this level of support in order to be sustained in the long run; they do not automatically refresh. Without the external sustenance, there are heartbreaking stories of recidivism or relapse or reduction in rate of progress. Also, survivors of serious medical conditions, somehow, set aside rules that they should be living by. The immediate threat is gone, the behavior becomes relaxed. The HIV/AIDS behavior change reports are such examples.

Global AIDS Update 2018  for the Caribbean noted in its At A Glance column that, “Renewed commitment to combination prevention that is tailored to populations and locations with the greatest need is required to accelerate reductions in new HIV infections.” And in its investment summary, “The financial resources available for HIV responses in the Caribbean increased until 2011; since then, it has declined, largely due to scaled back international support. Between 2006 and 2017, the availability of domestic resources increased 123.7%, while international resources have decreased by 16%. In 2017, the United States President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) provided 57% of the total HIV resources in the region; the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (Global Fund) provided 8%.”

This over reliance on external support is a matter of concern to that community. There are anecdotal stories of when the social intervention support is removed, the community deliberately reverts in order to force the NGO or the state to keep the support going.Then there is the clear information blitz approach, which is sometimes used to shame the society into behaviour change. This action is without behaviour change theory and probably shows absolutely no return for the effort. I am deliberately withholding giving examples of this high visibility and low return approach.

Community Support is the SolutionMarch 2020 marks the full awareness of countries outside of China to the threat of the COVID-19 virus and at the point of my writing, there is no good prediction as to what the full disaster will be for the lives and livelihoods lost and economies damaged. What I have seen, around me, is how fear for immediate personal safety is impacting behaviour change. With nary a whimper, entire societies see a common threat and have put up little resistance to changing ways of life. Ramping up behaviour change comes with a sharp prod to an emotional trigger.

The video of the Westmoreland couple was peopled with supporters of the violent man. He felt comfortable to beat the woman in the street because he had backative, strength in the number of men around him who were lauding his behavior and berating the woman. To change this, the man must truly believe that he will be socially ostracised for beating his girlfriend, even if she had done him wrong. The supporters who he wants in his life must but be the persons who will starve him of the comfort that he desires. This can be true even in the context of closed communities, like a gang.We have witnessed this time and again in Jamaica. An item is stolen and it is returned because a community leader sent a message that it was a mistake or wrong behaviour. I have participated in a community response, that kept a woman safe until she was emotionally strong enough to change her situation. In this case, the man's football crew stopped welcoming him into their midst. For a matter like domestic violence, we should not be queasy about who to reach out to as we do that in our daily lives for many other reasons.

To get a community to have a standard of accepted behaviour, we need stories. Factless fables should not be told as if they were truth, but told as wisdom in fancy dress so that it captures the imagination. Most stories can be for entertainment, but in many, there are stories that bear far more riches, and we should unearth them, place them where they will have impact and use them to define what is accepted and what is not.

Unfortunately, for decades, an unsuspecting Jamaican audience were exposed to perhaps, too many harmful, and glamourous soap operas and TV mini-series from the USA that were bereft of sustaining nourishment. I would say the mini-series genre from India, derided as melodramatic, contains much more value for an impressionable audience that has few signposts of values that support a society that operates for the benefits of all humans.

I give much praise to the theatre community in Jamaica which have had a longstanding history of projecting relatable stories to mixed audiences, leaving them with smile and hope. One example of mine is the vividly named Tek Yu Han Off A Mi, which I would support and add to my anti-domestic violence storybook.

Also on March 20, during the UK Prime Minister's press briefing on the government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic, all elements of storytelling were in place, including the national flag and call to action signage in plain English. A journalist asked if social gatherings, which went against the banning of meetings was now immoral. The Chancellor of the Exchequer who was fielding that question at the moment skipped aside and simply stated again what the behaviour expectations were. The Prime Minister then went on to urge young people not to think that they were invincible and that they can get sick and so should not go out and gather with others in a closed room.

I agree with their hesitancy. That this kind of national approach to moralising will be rejected, but at a local level, it has a huge impact. If your friend tells you that going out is immoral, it has more impact that if the Prime Minister and his ministers say it.

As a worker in the communication field, I hungrily learn from what the behaviour sciences can teach us about how to approach and measure behaviour change, but it must also be blended with how fast the results that you want have to come in and at what cost. For me, the uncounted incidents of human hurt caused by intimate partner violence warrants an approach that will save another person from self-loathing, and a physically painful, fearful, existence. This kind of violence has a disproportionately worse impact on women because, as mothers, they are the primary bearers of culture.

To get there quickly I would put in place a warm elixir of storytelling that will motivate influencers of the perpetrator to act in a way that would reduce this kind of violence. I will address the obvious role of the influencer first and then the storytelling.

They key component is to implement a behaviour change model that localises the convention “beating a spouse or partner is socially reprehensible”.

Included in the convention is that young women understand that they are of great worth so that they do not fall victim to being brutalized.

The contemporary Jamaican society has been formed over the course of three hundred years and traditions drawn from African, European and Asian sources and we should feel very comfortable using all of them. These include the Ananse traditions that kept our enslaved ancestors thinking smartly on their feet; Judeo Christian traditions with the host of fantastic stories from The Bible; the wider western traditions to include Helen of Troy, Shakespeare, Fresh Prince of Bel Air and Wakanda and also Asian traditions to include cuisine, entertainment and spiritual practices.

Jamaica also has a solid oeuvre of publications with stories that can be used to enrich the consciousness. I have set out a few on my Goodreadsprofile that can be used for inspiration for campaign storytelling.
We should not fear stories that seem awful on the face of it, for, if properly told, reveal life giving truths.


Measurement  Framework




/gdMarch 21, 2020