Marcia Henville's murder has again brought to the forefront the brooding spectre of domestic violence.The level of domestic abuse which women and their children are exposed to at home has not abated over the years, even despite domestic violence legislation. Much too often, the culmination of a long and intense history of abuse at home is the killing of the female partner. Sometimes, the children's lives are also taken. And sometimes, to complete the orgy of violence, the man ends up taking his own life.
I don't intend on this occasion to reflect on the forces which drive men to kill their loved ones or former lovers. I only observe that it must by now be obvious to law enforcement officers, policy makers and legislators that once the menace of domestic violence invades the home, the chances are not at all negligible that the female partner and her children will at some point be the victims of serious bodily harm, or death.
Obtaining protection orders from the court is no guarantee that the man will be restrained. As a matter of fact, in some instances the very resort by the woman to the protection which the state offers is a catalyst for further violence.
Vulnerable women and their children need the protection of state officials and institutions from their violent partners or fathers. The law imposes a duty on members of the police service to keep the peace, to coin an archaic phrase. What it means is that they are under a duty to investigate possible criminal offences and protect potential victims from those who stalk them.
Reliance on law enforcement authorities to protect women and their children from domestic violence has proved illusory because of the enduring belief, shared by a significant number of us, that domestic violence is a private matter and we interfere at the risk of being told that it is none of our business.
There are strong cultural underpinnings to this generalised attitude, exemplified in calypsoes which trivialise and sometimes glorify domestic violence, or in the glamorisation of what we refer to as "Tobago love." Members of the police service are not immune from this and as a result have tended not to take reports of domestic violence seriously, and certainly not the threat of further, even deadly violence.
That said, much progress has been made over years as a result of the tireless work of the women's movement generally, and specifically organisations such as Cafra and the Rape Crisis Centre, to sensitise police officers to the scourge of domestic violence and to develop protocols for dealing with complaints and preventing further violence. But the violence continues and women and their children continue to lose their lives in circumstances which are only too predictable. There have been improvements in the response of the Police Service, but long engrained attitudes die hard.
Recently, the United Kingdom Supreme Court was called upon to determine whether police officers could be held personally liable in damages to the estate or surviving family of a victim of domestic violence where the police are aware of or are told of a threat to the life or physical safety of the victim, but they fail to take reasonable steps either to assess the threat or to prevent it from being executed. Their Lordships answered that question in the negative. Among the main reasons for denying liability in such circumstances is the fear that "the police's ability to perform their functions in the interest of the community, fearlessly and with despatch, could be impeded."
Put simply, the concern is that police officers may be paralysed by the fear of being sued. It is highly likely that a similar principle will be accepted as law in T&T.So what remedy do the members of a grieving family have in the face the failure of law enforcement authorities to take steps to prevent what is statistically the likely result of a history of domestic violence? There is the possibility of a remedy for the breach of the right to life under the Constitution, but under current approaches, a breach is quite difficult to prove.
This is not simply a matter of finding compensation for the innocent victims of a dereliction of duty on the part of state authorities. What is of importance is finding a legal mechanism to cajole police authorities into performing their duties more effectively.In the absence of developments from within the judiciary itself, the task falls to the legislature to grapple with the problem and come up with a solution.
In the meantime, the Police Complaints Authority should make it its duty to investigate every case of death by domestic violence to determine the extent to which negligence on the part of the Police Service facilitated the killing. The Police Service Commission should also be astute to investigate whether disciplinary proceedings might be appropriate.
I was struck by the recent report that the former attorney general, the former minister of national security and the current chairman of the Police Complaints Authority are all felt to be under a sufficient risk of physical injury to warrant police protection. And this so, in the absence of any actual history or threat of violence. It seems obvious to me that victims of domestic violence are under the same, if not a greater risk of physical injury or death, and are deserving of similar police protection.