Police Commissioner Paul Farquharson rekindled the capital punishment debate during a recent interview with The Bahama Journal when he called for hangings to take place again, but the director of the Women’s Crisis Centre provided a different view yesterday.
Dr. Sandra Dean-Patterson said studies have shown that harsh punishments do not deter crime.
“We can learn from the experience of other countries and research from other countries shows that the death penalty and the cat-o’-nine tails or any other type of serious corporal punishment do not deter, especially when you are referring to crimes of passion because when they happen the perpetrator is not thinking of punishment; [he or she is] just dealing with emotions,” she said.
“For that reason, we are promoting the approach of helping our children with feelings and helping our children get in touch with their emotions so that they can learn to talk through their problems.”
But Mr. Farquharson sees things differently.
He said that many of the 28 men on death row at Her Majesty’s Prison should have been hanged a long time ago.
Amid a growing number of homicides in the country, the police chief said that he believes hangings would serve as a deterrent.
He raised serious about violent crimes, which according to police statistics, have increased over the last year.
In an effort to adequately address an increase in violent crimes, staff members and volunteers at the Women’s Crisis Centre yesterday officially launched an anti-violence programme.
The programme is aimed at reducing violence through active dialogue.
According to Dr. Patterson, dialogue is the only solution to the problem of violent crimes because it seeks to recondition certain individuals against habits that they were taught in early childhood.
Dr. Patterson said that Bahamian culture teaches males to show aggression while conditioning females to be more in touch with their feelings.
“One factor that stands out is – and statistics will show – that the majority of physical violence in our nation is male on male and male on female,” Dr. Patterson said.
“The majority of those on death row are male. The majority of those who are awaiting trail for murder are male. The majority of those charged with sexual violence are male. The majority of those in prison are male.
“What message are we giving to the boys and the males in our nation that is setting them up to be violent? This is one of the things that we would be looking at through this campaign.”
Male on male and male on female violence are becoming more socially accepted, according to Dr. Patterson, who pointed out that just three weeks ago a young man was killed at a nightclub while people watched.
Mr. Farquharson in his interview with The Bahama Journal said that particular killing was senseless and unfortunate.
Dr. Patterson yesterday said even sexual violence is now on the rise as a recent police report points to 546 reported rapes over the last four years. But according to Dr. Patterson that number only represents adult rapes.
She guessed that an accurate account of the number of rapes over the past four years would be twice as many.
Dr. Patterson added that there remains a need for a lot of focus in areas like domestic violence. She said that the Department of Social Services is now working on draft bills to amend current laws that relate to domestic violence.
By: Perez Clarke, The Bahama Journal
