Michael Abrahams | Violence as a trauma response

I have often said that I love Jamaica a lot, but there is a lot about Jamaica I do not love. I love our people, our music, our culture, our food, our climate and many other aspects of Jamaican life. On the other hand, high on the list of things I do not love is our level of violence.

We are a frighteningly violent society. Our murder rate is consistently in the top five globally. In fact, people get killed in Jamaica at a rate comparable with a country at civil war. Our educational institutions have resumed face-to-face classes, and videos abound of schoolchildren brutally attacking one another. We see boys fighting boys, girls fighting girls, boys and girls fighting one another, and even students attacking teachers. Our country is in a mess. The pertinent question is, “Why are we so violent?”

The answer is not simple. There are many contributing factors. But if we examine our history and the data gathered over the years by psychologists, psychiatrists, anthropologists, sociologists and others, one thing is clear: much of our violence is caused by trauma. And the trauma goes way back. The majority of us are of African descent, and most of us of this ethnicity are descendants of slaves. The transatlantic slave trade was one of the most brutal events in history, lasting for 400 years. During this time, our African ancestors were continually beaten, tortured, raped, humiliated and murdered.

You might think that slavery ended a long time ago, so we should have got over this, as Emancipation in Jamaica was in 1838. But what we need to understand is that the deleterious effects linger. Trauma can literally change our DNA and the way in which our genes are expressed, which is why even generations later, the effects of the excruciating physical and emotional pain can linger. And even after Emancipation, we remained under colonial rule for over 100 years, and the discrimination, dehumanisation and trauma continued.

STRONG CORRELATION

Research has found, and is well documented, that there is a very strong correlation between trauma and violence. In other words, violence is a common trauma response. And we are a traumatised people. Also, unfortunately, much of the trauma we experience is in childhood. Many of our children are exposed to community violence. They are also exposed to violence in the home, as the prevalence of domestic violence in our island is relatively high. They are also the recipients of physical violence, as corporal punishment is used to discipline our children in many households; and in conjunction with being struck repeatedly, it is not uncommon for hurtful comments to be made, often with raised voices, contributing to emotional trauma. As for the sexual abuse of our children, that is also of high prevalence, with many perpetrators never being brought to justice, allowing them to repeat their assaults with impunity.

Not only have we normalised physical abuse of our children, we have normalised child neglect as well. Far too many Jamaican children have been neglected by their parents and have been sent to live with ‘granny’, ‘auntie’, other family members, or even strangers, where parental absence, coupled with abuse by some of the caregivers and their associates, can lead to depression, resentment and anger.

Traumatised children are at a high risk for exhibiting violent behaviour. The pent-up pain and other negative emotions take a toll on them. They get triggered, and violence is a common response. Not everyone will respond to trauma by being violent. Trauma responses are varied, and are influenced by its severity and chronicity, the age at which exposure to the trauma occurred, the resilience and genetic make-up of the trauma survivor, and other factors. But violence is high on the list of sequelae.

FIRST STEPS

So, what can we do about it? One of the first steps is to acknowledge the link between trauma and violence. We then need to understand that we have the power to break our cycle of violence. Age-appropriate, comprehensive sex education of our children will go a long way to influence responsible sexual behaviour, which has the potential to decrease the incidences of sexual assault and unplanned pregnancies, and the likelihood of bringing unwanted children, who are at an increased risk of being abused, into the world.

The introduction of character education into our schools, where children are taught about empathy, compassion, kindness, respect, consent, boundaries, conflict resolution and other principles will help in socialising our youth to be more rational and less aggressive. Educating the populace about the harm that corporal punishment can do, destigmatising mental illness, normalising therapy, and teaching our people about the value of mindfulness meditation and other ways of rewiring our brains are avenues to be aggressively explored.

Much of our violence is the result of trauma, but as Australian activist Christine Caine said, “Your history does not need to define your destiny.” As we learn how trauma can sow the seeds for violent behaviour, approaches to tackling violence in our country must be trauma-informed and take into consideration the role ACEs (adverse childhood experiences) play in its perpetuation. Violence is destroying our society, but as we understand more about how trauma has contributed to this, we have the power to change it. We just have to be willing to do the work.

Michael Abrahams is an obstetrician and gynaecologist, social commentator and human-rights advocate. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and michabe_1999@hotmail.com, or follow him on Twitter @mikeyabrahams.