Changing conceptions of violence: the impact of domestic violence legislation in The Caribbean

• Author: Tracy S. Robinson
• Position: Lecturer in Law, University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, Barbados
• Pages: 113-135

CHANGING CONCEPTIONS OF VIOLENCE:

THE IMPACT OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

LEGISLATION IN THE CARIBBEAN

TRACY S. ROBINSON*

Introduction

"...[L]aw is 'not only practice and process but also discourse, code, and

communication.' Because it is the text in which some West Indian people crafted

their societies, it reveals lawmakers' assumptions and decisions about social order,

the nature of humankind, and the different natures of men and women."

At the heart of the public conversation about domestic violence is the

significance

of abusive behaviour when it occurs in family and intimate settings. The

language and interpretation of law has been a voice of considerable force in that

debate. The abuse suffered primarily by women and children in the family and

intimate relationships has been generally invisible in law it was labelled a private

matter, best addressed by the family and inappropriate for legal resolution.2 The

ruling of a trial judge in Jamaica in a petition for divorce provides a good

illustration. He refused to grant a divorce on the ground of cruelty to a woman who

had on a number of occasions been punched, hit, kicked and boxed by her

husband. In his view, the incidents did not go beyond the fair wear and tear one

would reasonably expect in a marriage.3

The law's failure to adequately protect the victims of domestic violence

reinforced and reflected what has been described as the 'tolerant cultural support'4

in the Caribbean for the conduct. The violence is said to be a prominent feature of

Lecturer in Law, University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, Barbados.

1 Mindie Lazarus-Black,

Legitimate

Acts and Illegal

Encounters:

Law and

Society

in Antigua and

Barbuda (1994) at 9.

2 An example of this sentiment is Mr. L Tull's statement in the House of Assembly Debates

on the Barbados Domestic Violence (Protection Orders) Bill that "You cannot have the

Government going into people's bedrooms": House of Assembly Debates, 12 March 1991 at

163.

3 Fortunately, the Court of Appeal overturned this decision, pointing out that the direct

physical violence in the case was of

a

fairly extreme nature. See Llewelyn v. Lewelyn (1978)

27 W.I.R. 188.

4 Danns and Parsad, Domestic Violence and Marital Relationships in the Caribbean: A Guyana

Case Study (1989) at 99.

all types of intimate relationships in the Caribbean.5 A new

study

suggests that as

many as one in every three women in Trinidad and Tobago has experienced

domestic violence.6 Suzanne La Font in her study of the Kingston Family Courts

concluded that physical abuse in intimate relationships was almost institutionalised

in Jamaica, to the extent that some women took it for granted.7

Many Commonwealth Caribbean countries8 have since 1991 passed legislation

aimed at pro to viding inexpensive and speedy relief in the lower courts for the

victims of domestic violence. The new legislation, a victory for feminists throughout

the Caribbean, is the most important family law reform effort in the region in the

1990s, The law now affords victims some autonomy notoriously absent in the

criminal process, in protecting themselves from the violence. An application can

be made for an order i) prohibiting the abuser from molesting or abusing him or

her, ii) excluding the abuser from the home or other premises, or iii) giving the

abused person a right to live in the home. The first two are generally referred to

under the new legislation as protection orders, and the latter is also described in

5 Danns and Parsad, ibid. at 77.

6 This figure is based on data gathered in 1990 from the Halfway House in Gasparillo in

Trinidad (Women, Family and Family Violence in the Caribbean: The Historical and

Contemporary Experience with Special Reference to Trinidad and Tobago (1994) at 59

(prepared for the Caricom Secretariat for International Year of the Family by University of

the West Indies, Women and Development Studies Group and Centre for Gender and

Development Studies, St. Augustine)).

7 S. LaFont, The Emergence of an Afro-Caribbean Legal Tradition: Gender Relations and

Family Courts in Kingston, Jamaica (1996) at 74, 114. The women interviewed in a Kingston

community and at the Kingston Family Court by La Font on average thought that

approximately

71%

of Jamaican men beat their women; the men said that they thought 56%

of men beat their women (ibid.).

8 The Commonwealth Caribbean consists of the following territories: Anguilla, Antigua

and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands,

Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Montserrat, St. Christopher'Nevis, St. Lucia, St.

Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago and Turks and Caicos Islands. The

following domestic violence legislation has been passed in the Caribbean: The Bahamas

Sexual Offence and Domestic Violence Act

1991;

Barbados Domestic Violence (Protection

Orders) Act 1992, Cap 130A; Belize Domestic Violence Act 1992; Bermuda Domestic

Violence (Protection Orders) Act 1997; British Virgin Islands Domestic Violence

(Summary Proceedings) Act 1992; Cayman Islands Summary Jurisdiction (Domestic

Violence) Law 1992; Guyana Domestic Violence Act 1996; Jamaica Domestic Violence Act

1995;

St. Lucia Domestic Violence (Summary Proceedings) Act 1995; St. Vincent and the

Grenadines Domestic Violence (Summary Proceedings) Act 1995; Trinidad and Tobago

Domestic Violence Act

1991.

These statutes will be hereinafter referred to in the footnotes

by the name of the jurisdiction.