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NATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON CRIME - COMMONWEALTH OF DOMINICA

Domestic Violence or Violence Against Women -
By Miss Rosie Brown - Director, Women's Bureau

Miss Brown stated that for the past years violence against women had been considered a non-crime issue since there had not been any law to deal with it until recently. However, it was one of the very serious crimes of all times especially when it was being inflicted on those who happen to be the most vulnerable group in society.

She said that the idea of the symposium and its importance for what the theme represented was something which the Women's Bureau welcomed. She believed it was an effort that would help strengthen the Bureau's area of concern as far as dealing with crime in society.

It was pointed out that domestic violence was an act of aggression that was being inflicted against an individual to cause pain which could take various forms such as physical, sexual, emotional or psychological. She proceeded to identify some of the crimes which fell under domestic violence -

The Bureau had also discovered the question of land in terms of helpless women losing their property and the question of maintenance, the greater perpetrator being the father.

Miss Brown pointed out that in order to deal with the question of violence there was need for a coordinated approach and a support system in place and as such the services available were inadequate and the resources were not available to assist in any way. Hence, the capacity building of a number of institutions needed to be addressed so as to be more effective in terms of service delivery. She believed that in any crime situation the most important task would be to find ways to avert the possibility of the increase in crime. In that regard, Miss Brown suggested that efforts should be made at education and public awareness as a means of addressing some of the concerns.

On the question of data collection, Miss Brown believed that the concerns represented by the Bureau were not sufficiently reflected in the statistics and suggested that greater efforts should be made at setting up the data collection within the system. However, she recognized that since the last census some effort had been made by the Statistical Division to organise a social and gender indicator by improving on the system of data collection.

With regard to best practices, Miss Brown indicated the need to work on prevention before any crime could be committed; the need to educate persons, education at all levels. Education of persons, she said, was done through community discussions, reaching out to women and families including the general public. Efforts were always made to involve men. One of the other avenues identified by Miss Brown included the TV programme "Wake Up Call" developed by the Women's Bureau in an effort to sensitise the general public about the existence of domestic violence, a very serious problem that impacted on a number of other concerns and problems in society and there was need to address it.

Another effort made by the Bureau at sensitizing the general public was the introduction of legal education, creating an awareness of the rights of women and other legal concerns. The Bureau had also developed some booklets explaining, in simple terms, the law on the different issues and concerns where it pertained to women and family. Workshops on the administration of the Domestic Violence Act had also been held with police officers and law enforcers. She said it was an interesting activity since the police grasped the opportunity to voice their concerns. Miss Brown informed that the Bureau also did counseling despite the very limited resources available.

The Bureau had also established a legal aid system to provide guidance and counseling for persons who had found themselves in situations where they could not represent themselves and did not have the means.

She indicated that domestic violence was a very serious problem in Dominica and was one that was there to stay if efforts were not made at prevention. The point was made that young persons believed that it was all right to be smacked and the young men felt that women deserved to be beaten.

Some of the challenges identified by Miss Brown were as follows:

Discussion
In response to a question raised as to whether the bureau ever thought of doing an education programme in the schools, Miss Brown said that the Bureau had been approached by the schools to do a programme and sessions had been conducted at the Dominica Grammar School, Portsmouth Secondary School, the Isaiah Thomas Secondary School and the Woodford Hill School.

However, she said, based on research the Bureau had already decided to put in place a programme designed to target the senior forms of the secondary schools and in that regard a proposal had already been submitted to an institution.

;One question raised was whether the Bureau handled cases of domestic violence against men. In response, Miss Brown stated that anyone who came to the Bureau for assistance was not turned away regardless of sex. She indicated that since the name of the Ministry had been changed from Women's Affairs to Gender Affairs, more men had been turning to the Bureau for assistance. She said the Bureau was trying its best to address the concerns that come from the men but research had shown that, in fact, two-thirds of the persons interviewed were women. However, the problems identified by the men as abuse were things like the women refused to do the domestic chores because of some misunderstanding between them. Miss Brown mentioned that quite a few married couples had also visited the Bureau. She revealed that for the last report of the Bureau, between June 2002 and April 2003 twenty-two men and 35 married persons had visited the Bureau.

Dominica Association of Industry and Commerce (DAIC)
Mr. Anthony Burnette-Biscombe, representative of the DAIC and also the broader private sector, including the DHTA had major concerns.

That sector was of the view that a reduction in the level of crime in the country played a major part in creating the enabling environment for attracting direct foreign investments and that presently, in Dominica, progress had been made in the area of crime prevention and reduction.

At company level, the basic external problems experienced were:

  1. robbery and burglary; and
  2. harassment to customers and staff.

The internal problems were:

  1. pilfering cash, stock, inventory and retail goods; and
  2. 'white-collar crime' involving the credit card system which was tantamount to fraud.

Mr. Biscombe expressed the view that many of those 'white-collar crimes' were not being reported to the police and observed that firms dealt with those crimes by instant dismissal of the employee concerned without compensation in terms of his gratuity entitlement and usually, the matter was left at that. He felt that the deterrent to reporting the crime to the police was that it was a long process both before charges were laid followed by the court process which took up the time of senior employees who may have discovered the crime.

Mr. Biscombe told the meeting that the investigation of 'white-collar crimes' needed to be backed up by technology and specialists in that area, as such crimes had accelerated with the advent of computers and the Internet.

Three (3) areas outlined which have been affecting the private sector economically as it related to crime, and were viewed as constraints to providing the enabling environment, were:

  1. Agriculture. Mr. Biscombe stated that the private sector felt that agriculture would not proceed further until a system could be established to overcome the problem of praedial larceny. He was of the view that in some areas, it was as bad as the time when the Dread Act was enacted when persons were unable to go onto their land and reap the harvest from the soil; he recalled that that was one of the many reasons why the Act was enacted. Mr. Biscombe added that, presently, praedial larceny pertained to both produce and livestock and that quiet locations, insolated or uninhabited areas were attractive for that sort of crime. Mr. Biscombe referred to trails which had recently been built and felt that those created a backdoor that have served to increase the crime of praedial larceny. He told the meeting that he had expressed his views against the building of the National Trail for that very purpose and because -
    • the trails were close to many fertile agricultural lands;
    • that it was ahead of its time, in that, the police service was not large enough to cope with it; Mli>the communities were not geared to take the problems of an emergency that could occur on the trail; and
    • systems had not been put in place by the Ministry of Agriculture to enforce the Praedial Larceny Act.
  2. Tourism Harassment. Mr. Biscombe recognised that manpower was necessary to curb the incidence of tourist harassment. However, he mentioned the existence of the Small Charges Act, and like the Noise Abatement Act, and the Litter Act, it was not being enforced. He suggested the need for enforcement and publication of reports on persons charged with such offenses in the press on a weekly basis, as well as Court reports on the punishments meted out to serve as a deterrent to persons to such crimes.

    At that point, Mr. Biscombe referred to the problem of litter on the streets and observed that many passengers on buses violated the Litter Act by disposing their litter on the bus route, thrown out through the bus windows. He submitted that the bus drivers should also be held responsible for litter coming from their buses.

    Mr. Biscombe then drew the meeting's attention to the presence of street beggars, locally called "Paros", who roamed the streets and presented a problem to private houses, staff and customers. He was of the view that it was a frightening experience for a tourist to leave the Fort Young Hotel on foot and to be accosted by a guy with no shirt, although he may be harmless. He remarked on efforts made by the hoteliers and others in the private sector to handle the problem in view of the fact that the police were sometimes stretched in manpower resources. However, Mr. Biscombe advised that economically and in the promotion of the island, it was necessary to stamp out the problem of harassment by the "Paros".

  3. The Magistrates' Court System. Mr. Biscombe referred the attention of the meeting to the situation where bench warrants were issued by Magistrates but it was observed that no action to that effect was being taken by Bailiffs. He submitted that one of the problems was that persons in Dominica were usually connected through a family relation or a friend. As a result, there was presently a problem where firms were unable to recover funds from defaulters who had been taken before the courts and that continued to be problem with the corporate sector.

    In that regard, a proposal had been made to Government for a private sector Magistrate but it had been pointed out that it would create a problem both politically and socially if such a proposal were effected.

    Mr. Biscombe informed the meeting that there was a suggestion by the Attorney General of the previous Government for the establishment of a night court which never came to fruition.

Solutions suggested to some of the problems
Mr. Biscombe referred to the emergence and growth in the last five years of security firms and the availability of better security systems for equipping buildings. He recommended the need for a central control room at Police Headquarters to which those individual security systems could be connected and which would alert the police to any burglaries or other such incidents at those businesses. A similar connecting system was suggested for the Fire Department, all of which could be linked to a telecoms company. Mr. Biscombe suggested that the police department, possibly the Police Welfare Association, could take up the project as an income-generating venture.

With respect to the incidents of white-collar crime, the DAIC had undertaken additional workshops for employers on vigilance and on early detection of such crimes. However, it was recognised that much training was required and further, it was an internal problem for which controls had to be put in place.

Mr. Biscombe observed that some companies were getting together to organise a neighbourhood watch for firms.

Commissioner of Police
The Commissioner of Police, Mr. Matthias Lestrade, informed the meeting that the police was presently working to have constables undertake city patrols, to have a uniformed police presence in the city. He also mentioned the establishment of a community-policing group in the Goodwill area and expressed the hope that other communities would come on board. Mr. Lestrade supported the sitting of night courts in order to facilitate tourists against whom offences were committed and who were to leave Dominica's shores the same day. He was of the view that the tourists should leave satisfied that some action had been taken against the offender.

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