The Thin Line

 I have always had grandiose ideas of being Vernee Sobers PhD, I mean I still have that idea, whether it be PsyD or PhD, one of those will definitely follow all of the other accolades behind my name. Still, at 28, after being a perpetual student from the age of 5, being engaged and making wedding and life plans, there is now that thin line between pursuing further education and settling down and playing house and popping out my lover's babies. 

 At what point in time do we consider each spectrum of this thin line. On one hand, education is my pride and joy, it is what I thrive on, I'm an academic in pursuit for heaven's sake. But still, as I sit on the cusp of 30,  my ovaries are screaming 'Oye! You! Try fertilise these eggs, lest they shrivel up and die'.  And that seriously is what I'm convinced they're saying. 

 My thin line has come, but I honestly think I have made my decision. In my eyes, education will always be there, but will my eggs be?

 We all have that right to consider what in life we wish to pursue. Whether it be a career, a degree or a family. It's so bad that I can see myself being a housewife, ok, I lied, I'm quite feminist, I believe in equal roles and the opportunity to pay a nursery to keep my child (my mother has already gracefully declined) so that those people can get money too. I very much believe in a functionalist society. Every thing and everyone serves a purpose. My purpose might be to help others, to make them laugh, to give them hope, maybe even for them to say 'because of Vernée I could'. 

To my future husband, with the hope of God's grace we will grow old together.

To my unborn child, no worries, mummy chose you over getting a Doctorate, she didn't really have to think about it. Maybe she'll go for it when you're 4 and daddy has you covered.

Thin lines? Do what your heart tells you.

With many words left unsaid, these are the thoughts from my head.

Just Vernée

Aren't females Important too?

With the upsurge of female related crime, I have chosen to publish the final chapter of my Master's thesis which speaks about this same problem. Ya know, just some light reading. *insert smile here*.

I would love for this to be an open discussion. We need to talk about women, we need to say their names, we need to help them, not just sit and laugh or chastise. Go ahead, read it. 

Chapter 5

                “It is easy to talk about the importance of empowerment for young women. But how can such a laudable principle best be translated into direct and daily practice when the law and departmental procedures constrain and inhibit both young women and young men from having a real say in their lives?”. (Hudson, 1990, p. 122)

Coming into this study, the consensus was that there would be a difference in the types of risk factors found between Barbados and the United Kingdom. This was felt because of the socio economical differences between the two countries, being that the UK is a First World nation and Barbados has only within the past 7 months been awarded Developed Nation status. Still, based on the results of the study,  it is seen that the risk factors and the circumstances are the same, which means, that these factors are not reliant on geographical status, but on the problems that young people from all walks of life face on the whole.  Also, in addressing the ideas of women being problematic, Hudson (1990) notes that women are often perceived by social welfare agencies as being hard to work with, having little political capital and labelled in high pejorative ways such as manipulative, uncontrollable and promiscuous. On the other hand, based on the responses given within the study, it is seen that it is not the case of women being difficult to work with, but the complexities which encompass the biological make up of women, makes them more emotional than men as well as having different needs, which means that men and women cannot be put into the same category while being assessed by social welfare.

It is also seen, that there needs to be work done on sustaining family relationships and quality of home life, where parents and their daughters come to some point of cohesiveness and girls are allowed to express the way in which they feel to their parents and vice versa without being victimized. Hudson (1990) says, “The central role of the family in these young women’s welfare career further distinguishes them from their male counterparts. The more that parents feel unable to cope with or curtail their daughters perceived waywardness and the greater the force of their pressure for something to be done, the greater the likelihood of state intervention. Consequently, many young women enter care not through the courts but by way of a voluntary reception into care. Others do appear before the Juvenile Courts but usually because local authority has applied for a care order on the ground that the young woman is ‘beyond parental control’ or in ‘moral danger’.” (1990, p. 119) The idea that a young woman can be ‘beyond parental control’ is disheartening especially because that notion can be easily fixed if familial needs are addressed from early. Mays (1972) asserts that cohesive, stable families even in poor and substandard urban areas often save their children from falling into delinquency because of the close care and consistent discipline and affection which are readily and constantly available. He goes on to note that, “It is because consistency in handling is so vital that the old myth of the broken home is seen to be misleading. A child with one good, loving, caring parent is less of a delinquent risk than the child from the home where parents disagree, quarrel of fail to carry out their duties”.  (Mays, 1972, p. 6)  This researcher has observed, especially in a Juvenile Court setting, parents being quick to diminish their responsibilities towards their ‘problematic’ children by saying, ‘I can’t help them, I don’t know what to do anymore, I’ve tried my best’, when they haven’t been playing the slightest of stable parental roles in their child’s life.  These parental roles need to be worked on, in order to ensure that youths feel as though they are in loving and capable families.

Early intervention is important for any young female who presents or shows high risk factors to delinquency in an attempt to keep that young girl from entering a Juvenile Court.  As mentioned in Chapter 2, Walker (1963) asserts that once a girl has entered a juvenile court, she is introduced to the world of delinquency. She goes on to say, “It is, therefore, not surprising that we find a considerable number of girls who, though in no way criminals themselves, become the affectionate, protective, wholly supporting, though unstable partners of seriously delinquent youths and men. I do not believe that not nearly enough is being done to prevent girls from entering a juvenile courtroom for the first time, for the wayward girl will support and give reassurance to her criminal boy friend, just as men in all other walks of life receive support and reassurance from their wives and girl friends”. (Walker, 1963, p.27) The fact that intervention was mentioned by each respondent in more than three questions shows that it is seen as an extremely important response to looking at the risk factors of young female offenders.

What needs to be noted before any recommendations are given, is that the resourcing capabilities are different between these two countries, which means that for the United Kingdom, there is a higher chance of programme implementation than there is in Barbados.

As has been put forward by numerous Government action plans and papers, the United Kingdom is on track for tackling youth violence and has specific interventions aimed at young females, most notably the ones outlined in the ‘Ending Gang and Youth Violence’ report of 2011, which includes;- Youth activity groups outside of school, a Girls and Gangs working group and workshops set up for families of girls involved in gangs as well as being victims of violence or gang activity and those caught up in youth offending. However, there are a number of recommendations that can be made for Barbados.

There are two main programs used by the Government in the intervention of female criminality. As mentioned by the Barbadian respondents, there is the Girls Circle which is used by the Probation Office as well as the Juvenile Liaison Scheme in which volunteers are encourage to foster close relationships with juveniles thereby assisting with their supervision.  The Scheme also offers a summer program to deviant and problematic teenagers in which they assist each child in setting goals for themselves, exploring the importance of team work, practising of respect for self and others as well as conflict resolution. These programs have proven effective to a certain extent, but more needs to be focused on gender specific interventions to help tackle the rise of young female criminality on the island. Much emphasis is placed on ‘the boys on the block’ because it is felt that boys are more problematic in behaviour than girl, but this is a wide misconception. Yes boys do have higher criminality rates than girls, and thus the reason why girls are put on the back burner, but the more they are left to sizzle in the pot, the more they will start to become more of a problem than they are right now. 

• ·         The first recommendation is that more positive female roles  be emphasized within the country. Every quarter, (based on resourcing needs) there should be a workshop involving positive female empowerment, where girls between the ages of 13 – 17 would be invited from Secondary Schools across the island so that they would be able to participate and speak to other successful females, especially those who have overcome or exhibited cases of resilience.
• ·         The second recommendation is based on the study by Bolzan and Gale (2011) in Australia and the idea of the ‘interrupted space’. This takes young females and allows them to showcase skills that they did not know existed within them. It is a method of creating resilience within the young female. Examples of ways to do this, would be to offer them the opportunity to be a part of creative process, might that be directing a film, creating a magazine, running a small legitimate business and such. Especially if the young girl thrives in the opportunity that has been given to her, she can see that whatever marginalities she comes from, she can get past without turning to a life of offending. 
• ·         The third recommendation is to encourage extra-curricular activities not only within the school but within the community. If these young women have something else to look forward to, even if their home situations cannot be fixed, the idea of being involved in a greater process might be enough to fuel a life without offending.  To be specific, not just activities such as ‘modelling’ which is all the new craze on the island but activities such as dance, and theatre and music. The reason why ‘modelling’ is not seen as a productive extra-curricular activity is from the sexualisation that it implicates on the island and it is felt that these girls not need be reminded that their bodies are a ‘meal ticket’ but that their mind is.

These three recommendations can prove highly effective along with other programs that would allow for the early intervention of young female offending. This study was extremely small and preliminary, but it is felt by this researcher than it should be researched further not only in Barbados but within the United Kingdom, as well as an opportunity to have a longitudinal study, which can pin point other psychological, biological and sociological factors throughout an individual’s life, that would not have been present during adolescence.