Avia Collinder, Sunday Gleaner Writer

Herbert Gayle, UWI Mona. - Peta-Gaye Clachar/Staff Photographer

CARE CENTRES and an expanded Programme for Advancement through Health and Education (PATH) might help to rescue inner-city male infants who were identified as prone to violence, reports a recent study.

One eight-year-old boy robbed a store with a Glock handgun! This was one of the alarming revelations in a study done by University of the West Indies-based anthropologist, Dr Herbert Gayle. He was lead researcher in the study of 53 inner-city boys age six to eight.

It was designed to examine the family and community-life experiences of young boys within garrison communities, characterised by high levels of poverty and violence. Its findings were compiled in the report Young Birds That Know Storm: Life Experiences of Boys Ages Six to Eight Years Living in Communities of Extreme Poverty and Violence.

Further data from this study indicate that the infants, especially those most violent, were also affected by hunger and a significant lack of parental protection.

Reading skills below average

Many, the study cites, also exhibited reading skills below those expected for their age group, physical stunting (being much shorter than girls in their age group) and 'adultification', which included involvement in adult entertainment, including smoking, drinking alcohol, sexual exploration and attendance at dancehall sessions where "they wined on older women or attended with their girlfriends of the same age".

The boys in the 2007 study acknowledged carrying out acts of violence against others, including constantly instigating fights; intentional wounding, such as stabbing, throwing stones and bottles and hurting or 'drawing blood', or carrying lethal weapons on their person; and, using a gun with the intent to harm others.

However, according to Gayle, "Welfare and a semblance of love" might be the intervention needed for what might otherwise be a generation 'factory-prepared' for violence."

Nearly 50 per cent of the survey group related experiencing extreme hunger, with the figure climbing to 75 per cent among the boys whose history indicated violent aggression. The same percentage also had only one cooked meal a day - which was eaten at school. "I have never met so many people who ate bread and butter (as a meal) before this study," the anthropologist disclosed.

Among the "most violent infants", the doctor noted that 31 per cent were involved in hustling and illegal activities, such as the sale of marijuana and robbery.

Infant trauma

In this group, infants also exhibited general forms of trauma including hunger, hustling, homelessness and relocation. Relocation involved being burnt out, fleeing for fear of being labelled informers, and domestic violence.

Two boys were frequently forced to sleep on the roof of their home because their mothers were prostitutes and would turn them out while having sex. These boys also admitted to carrying knives to deal with those who teased them about their mother's occupation. Five of the infants were homeless, living in cardboard boxes.

The study revealed that among those boys judged to be non-violent, the protection index was highest - including strong parental supervision, protection from exposure to political activism and protection from talking to members of Parliament, involvement in religion, and relocation to escape violence.

However, among those classified as most aggressive, the protection index was low with little or none of these positive influences available to them.

Also of significance, the anthropologist stated, was the poor relationship recorded between the most violent boys and their mothers, who were often single parents. Only 23 per cent of the violent boys had 'good' relationships with their mothers. One factor, he noted, was the frequent changing of sexual partners.

More money for education

Noting that school was the place where the boys said they felt most safe, the anthropologist stated that more money must be spent on education by the State. Expenditure on schools, the PATH programme and other related initiatives, he said, should be no less than 15 per cent of the budget. PATH, he stated, should not only focus on single mothers, but should also be expanded to support the household affected by poverty.

But, most needed, the anthropologist said, was the need for care centres for infant males and other inner-city children places which were more than homework centres and where boys could "go after school, do their homework, play and experience love and care.

"These centres or programmes can be hosted in churches, community centres or schools. They can be funded by civil society, Government and churches. Communities that have already established homework centres can simply expand their programmes to include the care of the younger children," Gayle recommended, noting, that "the essence of these centres is simply to extend the period of love and care these boys obviously receive from school while shortening the period of time they spend experiencing violence and hardship in their communities".

The influence of garrison politics, the researcher said, is made worse for the most violent boys by the absence of countersocialisation in their individual homes. Only boys who received a "high level of nurture and supervision acted differently or seemed to absorb little of the training to harm persons who support the opposing political party", the anthropologist revealed.