Forensic Psychotherapy takes as a starting point the meaning of a crime/act of violence or perversion - meaning for the people involved, their history, their setting. Governments, unlike psychotherapists, do not take individuals as their focus. The Sure Start initiative, launched this year with over 60 "trail-blazer" projects, aims to combat the negative effects of poverty and social exclusion. It is also hoped that this will decrease children’s exposure to factors which contribute to anti-social/destructive behaviour: poverty, and concomitant social exclusion and maternal depression.
Sure Start is based on the premise (apparently proved by the Head Start programme in the USA) that £1 spent now with "at risk" families saves £7 later in health, social services, police and prison costs. With this in mind the government has set aside £452 million a year for England (with further funds available for Wales and Scotland) for projects which invest in poor families and their children.
Will Sure Start address what is known about the psychological aspect of criminal/destructive/perverse behaviour? Given the complex motivations and personal dynamics of each act, what is the ‘how’ which links a social phenomenon (poverty) to individual actions?
Oliver James, in his 1995 publication, Juvenile Violence in a Winner-Loser Culture tries to make the connection. Taking one focus, interpersonal violence amongst young males, he argues that this is connected to poverty through the mechanism of maternal depression:
Violence is associated with being male, young and from a low-income family
The variance between violent and non-violent males from low-income families is explained by the presence of parental abuse, disharmony and irritability.
Depressed mothers are more likely to be irritable, poor mothers are significantly more likely to be depressed than other mothers.
Irritable mothers are more likely to use inconsistent, arbitrary, neglectful or abusive parenting styles which lead to poor attachment in children: aggressiveness in boys, and depression in girls.
Boys who are aggressive in childhood are more likely to be violent as adults.
Why was it only in 1987 that there was a sharp rise (40%) in juvenile violence against the person in the UK - at the same time as the number of juveniles involved in other crime dropped? Social isolation is a factor, he says, because of the emergence in the 1980s, of a "winner-loser" culture idealising the lifestyles of the wealthy (what he memorably calls "sex’n’shopping" novels and TV shows), at the same time as relative economic inequality was worse than at any other time since 1945. The "winner/loser" culture locates the cause of deprivation in the individual, not in the social structure - if you’re poor, if you don’t have all the material goodies, it’s your fault. When being poor means being a "loser", low income can be translated into a sense of unreasonable and provocative inequality with no light at the end of the tunnel.
Sure Start West Green, based at the Woodlands Park Nursery Centre (already nominated a "Centre of Excellence" for child-care) is emphatic that social isolation and poverty are key factors for "at risk" families - identified mostly by maternal depression. In a borough with a high percentage of refugees, high turn-over tenancies, social transience, they see the negative effects of the lack of community cohesion.
"But we don’t want to start from a deficit model. We work from the belief that most parents want the best for their children," said Carol Warden, Head Teacher. "We also want to make it easier for them to really enjoy their children". Working with home visitors and speech therapists to identify parents who are depressed or having difficulties relating to their children, they try to draw them into community projects based at the Nursery Centre.
Acknowledging that Sure Start cannot eliminate poverty, nor resolve underlying community tensions, the Sure Start Co-ordinator for Haringey, Zena Brabazon, said that they hope to work with parents to build on their strengths and resources. The nursery is seen as a contact point for isolated parents which does not involve the stigma of visiting social services or psychiatric departments.
Capital grant money has been spent turning an unused basement kitchen into a community centre, complete with IT equipment ("we need to have something to attract and interest fathers"). Adult literacy will be taught under the guise of "help your child to read"; beauty therapy and hair-dressing students from a local college will be asked to come in and "practice" on mothers identified as depressed, who will be taught how to do massage for each other and their babies. "Parenting skills groups will focus on communication," said Brabazon. "How important it is to make eye-contact with your babies, talk to them, turn the TV off, read to them. Enjoy them."
The nursery itself places a high value on attachment: "We’re not afraid of it," said Warden, whose staff take in children as young as 8 months old. "We know that infants need attachment figures, and our staff are trained to respond to this."
Reference:
James, O. (1995). Juvenile Violence in a Winner-Loser Culture: Socio-Economic and Familial Origins of the Rise of Violence Against the Person. London: Free Association Books. 164 pages. ISBN 1-85343-309-8
Sure Start West Green Delivery Plan, Haringey Local Council, 0181-489 3020.