Priya E. Maharaj

Competing Meanings of Childhood and the Social Construction of Child Sexual Abuse in the Caribbean.

This article examines the dynamic interplay between competing meanings of childhood and the social construction of sexual abuse in the Caribbean. Drawing on qualitative data from a study undertaken in six Caribbean countries, the article suggests that Caribbean childhoods are neither wholly global nor local but hybrid creations of the region’s complex historical, social and cultural specificities, real or imagined. As childhood is a concept that lies at the intersection of multiple frames of reference, context-specific definitions of childhood – what it means to be a child – have a direct impact on the way in which the issue of child sexual abuse is constructed and understood.

Gendered Sexual Relations and Sexualized Gender Relations

This chapter ‘Gendered Sexual Relations and Sexualized Gender Relations’ seeks to engender critical thinking on gender and sex. Sex, however it is defined and, gender, present to us convoluted, complicated and sometimes confusing notions that raise pertinent questions about these living concepts. In the simplest sense the title provokes two questions. How are sexual relations gendered? And, how are gender relations sexualized? Our path to engaging with these questions and thus the plan for this chapter traverses many issues, ranging from history to sexual exploitation, and requires a critical re-thinking of stereotypical views about gender and sex. The chapter begins by presenting definitions of sexualized gender relations and gendered sexual relations, followed by Caribbean and extra-Caribbean histories and examples of how sex and gender have been socially constructed. Caribbean specific examples related to children, sex and gender (for example, the effects of early sexualization) are discussed and the role of international conventions, such as the United Nations Conventions on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) and the UN Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) are explored. In conclusion, we present a comprehensive and usable framework for child protection in the Caribbean.

Working with Adolescent Girls who have been Sexually Abused

This part of the book explores the wider contexts and impact of intersecting harms (child sexual abuse [CSA], family violence and gender inequality) in regard to adolescent girls and teenage mothers. Our entry to the topic is the story of Melissa (not her real name). Ecological systems theory, as a basis for practice, would have us acknowledge that children are nested within family systems, which in turn are nested within community and societal systems, and that interventions that explore the inter-relationship of system dynamics can be particularly effective. We agree with and have written extensively about this, but Melissa’s story reminds us too that sometimes children are embedded in systems that are so destructive to their well-being that they must, for their survival, find themselves un-nested. Melissa represents the child whose family is so dangerous to her safety that she cannot remain a part of it or at most who lives on its periphery and therefore new systems of support need to be created.

Art as a Therapeutic Modality

This final section of the book discusses multiple usages of art, and art therapy, for healing emotional trauma. Several cases are sketched as illustrative of practices that work, or do not work, either within the context of a professional clinical practice or as a part of a wider community setting where the simple presence of a compassionate guide will suffice.

The Gifted Practitioner

This book is about practice and interventions for abused children, their families and abusers too. Our work on violence against children and child sexual abuse (CSA), in particular, continues to be informed by the theoretical lens of intersectionality, ecological systems theory and the public health approach, which aim to produce knowledge and interventions to prevent sexual abuse and other forms of gender-based violence across entire societies rather than at the individual level. The first two books in this series were also informed by these lenses. It is important, though, that while we seek to tackle abuse at the societal level, we pay mind to the needs of individuals who are harmed by abuse and that we recognise that the statistics the public health approach seeks to reduce are composed of individual acts of harm stacked one on top of the other. So, we have written a book that provides an ecological approach to dealing with the effects of abuse on individuals and families. Using case studies, we demonstrate the interconnecting factors that contribute to children’s maltreatment and explore some clinical and therapeutic approaches to assisting them and their families. Our approach shows the non-linearity of causes and effects of abuse, reminding us that the uniqueness of each child’s situation requires a specific and individual response. However, we should also be cognisant of the common factors that contribute to abuse, and where possible we should provide group prevention and treatment interventions. Children’s resiliency following abuse and the extent of any adjustment difficulties they may face (such as certain psychiatric outcomes like depression, conduct disorder and attempted suicide) are influenced by a range of factors. An important objective of this book, therefore, is to increase critical thinking about the imperative need for a range of child, family and group interventions within the Caribbean for responding to the harm of sexual abuse. Sometimes the interventions we describe are taken directly from practice—these are examples of actual treatment approaches we have used. Other times we provide examples of interventions that would be appropriate for the cases presented; in these instances, these are hypothetical treatment approaches. We have used approaches from the fields of social work, clinical psychology, psychotherapy, art therapy and organisational psychology; for example, we borrow the concept of Emotional Intelligence (EI), derived from organisational psychology, to argue for reflective practice.

Working with Young People with Harmful Sexual Behaviour

The exploitation and subjugation of one gender by another (women are more likely to be victims of exploitation than men) are deeply rooted in historical practices, politics and cultural values concerning the roles each should adopt in a society. These roles act as identifiers, defining what it means to be a male and what it means to be a female in domestic, group and community spaces, be it in the home, at work or at leisure. The subjugation of women and maltreatment associated with these gendered roles are preserved by everyday actions, social expectations and traditions and are maintained by outmoded legislation. The enculturation of gender inequality thus becomes intergenerational, and the values that contribute to gender-based violence and the sexual abuse of children are passed down and across families. In this part of the book, we examine the impact of a form of sexual abuse that is little talked about—abuse by mothers. As will be shown, sexual abuse of children by women is as likely to have its genesis in gender inequality and violence to women as is sexual abuse by men. We traverse a different terrain from the other parts of the book, the abuse of a son by his mother, the cyclical nature of intergenerational abuse and the factors that intersect to create conditions of risk and vulnerability to children. Elsewhere (Jones and Trotman Jemmott 2013; Jones et al. 2014), we identify how these intersections place children at risk of male perpetrators of abuse. In this part of the book, we explain that these same conditions can mean that children are also at risk from women and these same conditions can, in turn, mean that children who once were victims are now both victim and perpetrator—placing other children at risk of abuse from them. These networks of sexual abuse are often described as intergenerational but we must remember that they also extend their reach laterally across generations, across young people in a wide range of settings, across peer groups and sibling groups too. Interlocking factors that perpetuate child sexual abuse (CSA) in the Caribbean include the following:

Interventions with Children in Residential Care

In this section, our aim is to build knowledge and practice skills for working with children in residential care. We begin by highlighting important commitments to improving residential care and family-based alternatives that Caribbean governments have signed up to. We describe the current state of residential care services for children in the Caribbean, articulate what is meant by good quality care and provide practice examples which can be easily replicated. We acknowledge that residential child care in the Caribbean faces many challenges (Lim Ah Ken 2007; Sogren and Jones 2015), and we have been careful to ensure that the practices we describe can be implemented within current constraints while at the same time contribute to improving children’s quality of life. This is a book about child sexual abuse, and in this section we focus on the sexualised behaviours presented by Anton and Oriana, siblings living in a children’s home and our fourth case study. We look at the underlying factors that have contributed to their behaviour and how caregivers and therapists should respond. We then discuss what these overall factors signify for residential child-care practice in general and suggest a model of nurturance care that can be adopted with relative ease by residential facilities in the Caribbean.

Working with Children with Learning Disabilities

In this part of the book, we focus on the rights of children with learning disabilities to be protected from abuse and we also discuss strategies for family support. The case study highlights issues of loss, non-family abuse and the impact on parenting capacity of alcohol misuse. The discussion emphasises the importance of taking into account children’s communication needs, intellectual impairments and any specific abilities and interests the child has in the planning of interventions. Two approaches to practice are provided for working with children, and two for empowering families. Although we have applied these methods to children with learning disabilities and their families, they can be adapted for many children and the family-based approaches are generic.

Collective Complacency and Engendering Community Action

This chapter is concerned with two of the system boxes in the systems model for understanding the social drivers and determinants of abuse (see Figure 1.1): the lack of awareness of the seriousness of the effects of child sexual abuse and the lack of collective outrage and community action (see Figure 6.1).

The Roots to Violence

This chapter explores some of the interrelating factors implicated in transactional sexual abuse and the prostituting of children, both of which are manifestations of child sexual abuse (CSA). In this chapter we use, sometimes interchangeably, the terms sex trading, transactional child sexual abuse and the prostitution of children; although these terms carry different connotations, all refer to the commercial sexual exploitation of children. The chapter derives its theme from the first box in Figure 1.1, ‘A systems model for understanding the social drivers and determinants of abuse’. An environment in which abuse flourishes includes cultural sanctioning of sex trading, social acceptance of vio- lence, consumerism (linked to sexual commoditization), poverty and community violence (see Figure 2.1). These topics, explored as contem- porary realities, are set against a historical backcloth which is distinctly Caribbean and which provides the spawning ground and institutional structures that continue to influence values and behaviours to this day. These issues have been identified from research in the Eastern Caribbean (Jones and Trotman Jemmott 2009) as being crucial to tack- ling CSA. Such factors influence the perpetuation and impact of CSA in particular environments and periods and within particular relational interactions (in a space, a time, a community; in interactions between children and adults); they intersect in unobtrusive yet powerful ways. A systems approach can help us identify the interplay of harm factors and disrupt the various routes to the sexual harming of children.