Salter (left) and Weller

Avia Collinder, Sunday Gleaner Writer

A new programme targeting men who batter women is being developed by a regional group of psychologists, and will be launched in Jamaica early next year.

The standardised programme for 'batterers', which has been piloted in Grenada and St. Lucia, will be led locally by University of the West Indies-based psychologists Dr. Peter Weller and Dr. Veronica Salter, in association with the Dispute Resolution Foundation.

According to Weller, the programme will allow men to view the results of trauma caused by battering and look at the legal and other implications of their actions, which is estimated to cost the health sector some $160 million annually.

"The programme is intended not to help men remain in relationships, but to heal whatever psychosis or social problems related to their habit of battering women," Weller explains.

Psycho-educational model

He says the new programme for batterers will be based on a psycho-educational model which will help men understand themselves and relationships, as well as how to share with others.

"The bottom line of the intervention is the safety of the partner," the psychologist says. "Men batter because they themselves have problems. Many were brought up under very abusive conditions, exposed to violence early, and there are others who were abandoned by their fathers."

Funded by UNIFEM, the new programme will cover such topics as anger management, masculinity, power and control, communication, sexuality, fatherhood and the effects of violence on children.

"We are trying to develop a model programme for use in the Caribbean. We are hoping for a model inclusive of court-referred men as well as those referred by psychologists and psychiatrists," Weller explains.

The programme, which Weller hopes will be a long-term one, will help men to improve their quality of life and improve "all dimensions of manhood". Jamaican men will also be trained as resource persons to take the message of non-violence and male empowerment wherever in the island it is needed.

Welcoming the initiative, Sharon Martin Dale, counsellor at the Woman Inc., says that "rehabilitation is possible and we need a programme for that. We need a programme based in the schools."

Faith St. Catherine, counsellor attached to the inner-city based Women's Resource and Outreach Centre in Kingston, says that the intervention is a timely one, but a concerted effort needs to be made to help men to express their anger and frustration in appropriate ways.

"We tell boys not to cry, so men do not talk about how they feel. We need to teach our children to express their emotions in an appropriate way.

"They have also not learned to resolve problems in peaceful ways. Little boys tell me they will not take any (intimidation) from anybody and the way to resolve issues is to punch. Parents also batter and abuse them. We have to go back to their socialisation, " she suggests.

Decline in battering

Although figures indicate a decline in battering, Dale tells The Sunday Gleaner that "there are more reports that we are not getting. It is an epidemic."

Supporting her claim, Amnesty International reports that only 10 per cent of battered women in Jamaica ever report the problem. The Amnesty International report, dated June 22, 2006, states: "Women in Jamaica are most at risk in their homes. More than half of all violence against women occurs in the home, and just over half of this is perpetrated by intimate partners. Women are nearly 30 times more likely than men to have a sexual assault-related injury and the perpetrator is usually someone they know."

Domestic violence and crises rates in Jamaica 1996-2006

Year Domestic violence Domestic crises