The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Stress on dealing with child offenders differently

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jan 14, 2007
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Stress on dealing with child offenders differently

"They need to be protected from themselves and sometimes society."

Dr. Surya Bhate has a face and a demeanour that make you want to confide in him. In his trade, surely, it is everything. A child psychiatrist, who is also a forensic psychiatrist, Dr. Bhate has spent more than four decades reading the minds of children through their faces, gestures and voices. Though child offenders are no less culpable in the eyes of law, they should be dealt with differently, he tells Ramya Kannan.

Currently Clinical Director - Children's Services at the Tees, Esk and Wear Mental Health Trust, UK, Dr. Bhate has dealt with several children who have committed serious crimes. "In addition to protecting society from them, we need to protect them from themselves and sometimes, society."

According to him, traditionally in the U.K., murders are investigated by a forensic psychiatrist in an attempt to study the thought patterns of murderers. "In 15 years, we have recognised that one third of serious crimesare committed by those in the 16-18 years age group," Dr. Bhate explained. So they require psychiatric examination and if they are found to be mentally ill, require to be put in a secure hospital environment.

Referring to the recent case in Chennai where eleven-year-old Arvind was murdered by his friends, two teenagers, Dr. Bhate said, "The question to be asked is: `Was the person who committed the crime aware of its gravity?' Even as the courts find them guilty, we need to provide them education and social care, rehabilitate them." In a case involving a 17-year old boy held for killing his girl friend, Dr.Bhate discovered that the boy had been consistently abused by the girl who had three convictions for assault. "The court took this into account and the boy got away with four years imprisonment," he added.

In another case, a 13-year-old au pair was convicted for killing the child in her custody by thrusting a sharp instrument into the baby's eye. Dr. Bhate had to work with the girl for six months before he could discover that she herself was a victim of very harsh parenting.

Does over exposure to the media, intoxication, or poor parenting make youngsters commit crimes? For Dr. Bhate, any one of the causes mentioned above is not provable statistically. "It is a possibility, but not conclusive and certainly not the cause of crime." With experience, he has found that the behaviour of child offenders often has a combination of causes: disadvantageous life experiences, poor/harsh parenting, victims of violence or abuse, under the influence of intoxication.

Dr. Bhate's train of thought then leads to a fundamental question: If a number of children are exposed to similar negative experiences, why do only a few revert to crime? "We do not totally understand this situation, but we know it depends hugely on the vulnerability of a particular individual."

According to him, some children are rendered resilient to negative experiences, thanks to a combination of genetic factors, natural temperament, intelligence, personality and the presence of a supportive relationship, someone they can confide in.

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