Generational damage
Youth violence in Northland is a growing concern. In the second of our four-part series, Karina Cooper looks at the impact social factors have on the issue.
Each week Northland police answer the calls of about 180 family harm emergencies, ranging from heated arguments to savage attacks. Of these callouts, officers say there is a heartbreakingly high number of children forced to watch cruel acts of emotional, physical, psychological and sexual abuse within their families — often linked to alcohol and drugs.
Despite the general perceptions of family violence in the north, research shows Te Taitokerau youth are significantly less likely to witness family violence than those in Auckland or Waikato.
But those children who are forced to be involuntary onlookers can become key contributors to the pockets of youth violence a Whangarei mother wants calmed.
Dr Terryann Clark (Ngapuhi) — a registered comprehensive nurse with extensive experience in youth health, youth mental health, Maori health and a University of Auckland associate professor — said young witnesses to family violence become drawn into intergenerational cycles of abuse their families are lost in.
“I think violence begets violence. Children learn violence from families and actually families have learnt violence from cycles with all sorts of factors.”
These factors included colonisation, racism, discrimination, poverty, equity, housing, and a long-running lack of hope.
Children who are exposed to family violence within their homes were more likely to be younger students — with no real Pacific, Asian or other ethnic descent when compared to Pakeha and other European
youth, according to the governmentfunded Youth19 survey completed every four to five years.
Young people living in poorer neighbourhoods were also more likely to witness family violence.
A downward trend was recorded in the number of young people across Northland, Auckland, and Waikato who witnessed adults hitting other children.
Instead, they reported a slight increase in the number of young people who say they see adults hitting each other.
Clark said research showed them that violence in the home also impacted families “irrespective of ethnicity or how much they earn”.
Family violence muddies the messaging around appropriate behaviour for kids, who are often told not to hit others only to go home at the end of the day to a household where abuse is deemed a solution.
“We’re expecting a young child to make sense of ‘it’s not okay to hit’ but it happens at home,” Clark said. “They’re thinking when my family gets annoyed at me they hit me but I’m not supposed to do that when I get annoyed at other people.”
Police believe the true magnitude of children witnessing family harm in Northland — and nationwide — stretches well beyond what officers encounter, as a large portion of abuse is kept behind closed doors.
However the calls they do receive about family harm form the majority of the district’s police work, Whangarei-Kaipara police area commander Inspector Marty Ruth said.
It is a theme relevant to the wider region and New Zealand as a whole, Mid and Far North relieving area commander Chris McLellan said.
McLellan’s 20 years in the police has seen him amass extensive experience and responsibility in youth, community, ethnic, and family harm in Northland.
A key takeaway: the difficulty afflicted families have breaking cycles of family harm.
“There are communities where there have been generational issues where families have struggled to make changes and that has really affected our young ones who are often present and it’s obvious when we are policing those communities.” Families can find themselves, for decades, struggling against Northland’s housing crisis.
“In terms of Northland we have challenges around shortages and the quality of housing.
“From personal experience being further up north, we have people living in caravans and portacoms or in accommodation outlets that are supported.”
Circumstances McLellan saw frustrate a family’s efforts to create an environment to call home.
“It’s not so much physically about the house but if you do have a house, you’ve got somewhere to live, to call home, you’ve got a connection point — a whakapapa — which is so important for creating safer homes.”
Clark said colonisation was another factor driving intergenerational family violence.
“Prior to colonisation hitting children was a tapu thing to do — children were really valued. Yet colonisation has taught us that you have to hit your children to get them into line.
Racism and discrimination also contributed to “all sorts of really violent ways of dealing with behaviour”.
StatsNZ wellbeing statistics for the December 2020 quarter reveal Northland ranks in the higher end nationally when it came to experiencing discrimination in the past 12 months.
Miriam Centre counselling service director Patsy Henderson-Watt said intergenerational family violence had the ability to hold loving parents hostage.
“I’ve never met a parent — and it’s not just a cliche — who didn’t want the best for their kids. I’ve met hundreds who can’t because they have no other resources or because for three or four generations there has been unemployment or lowwage employment, and crap housing.”
She said families in the north were in survival mode and just needed to “get through”.
“These kids and families who are violent, often become designated as “bad”, but they’re not. They are people trying to survive. They’re in trauma and their trauma are things like being hungry or sexually abused.”
However, their issues were often inflamed by drugs and alcohol, which Henderson-Watt said when mixed with poor role-modelling had dire consequences for young people.
Her view was echoed by Clark, who used the America’s Cup as an example.
Rewind to March, where images of people drinking champagne from the cup itself were littered across news outlets across the nation.
“If you look at that from the public health perspective, it is saying when you are successful and top of your game this is how you celebrate. Children see these messages, I think these are really strong, of this is what you do to show you’re the best and this is how you behave.”
Long-term messaging potentially reflected today in the high number of family harm incidents police attend linked with drugs and alcohol.
McLellan said methamphetamine and drug use within Northland homes remained high as indicated by wastewater.
Henderson-Watt said when the home environment stopped resembling a family, kids were more at risk of prospecting in gangs.
“They get into gangs because they feel like they finally belong to a family, but also I think kids get into gangs because they think it’s cool.”
Youth violence: How bad?
There have always been violent people shut behind doors we didn’t know about, says Miriam Centre counselling service director Patsy Henderson-Watt.
Since the Miriam Centre first opened 33 years ago the demand for services had always been “massive”.
“It’s not worse, it has always been bad. There have always been violent people shut behind doors that you didn’t know about.”
Acting Senior Sergeant Christian Stainton, Area Prevention Manager, Whanga¯rei police said the perception youth violence is on the rise was misleading.
“There is no evidence or data to suggest there has been any increase in incidents involving youth violence or that police are attending more of these incidents.”
But he acknowledged in recent months youth had been involved in a small number of violent episodes within school grounds or on school bus routes, which included arranged fighting, shared on social media.
Mid and Far North relieving area commander and strategic partnership manager Chris McLellan said there was definitely a large number of calls reporting youth violence.
But he hoped that was a result of the growing trust Northlanders had in police to create safety.
“We are finding the trend more recently is we are getting calls for intervention early. We are building relationships and trust with the community that when they call we come and help.”
University of Auckland associate professor Dr Terryann Clark (Nga¯ puhi), who has extensive experience in youth health and youth mental health, said people may be surprised to learn bullying has been trending downwards over the last 20 years.
Five per cent of the 7500 young people from Northland, Waikato and Auckland said they were bullied weekly or more often.
Girls were just as likely to be bullied as boys, Clark said.
“There is no difference by socioeconomic deprivations – wealthy schools, poor schools, it’s still the same and there are no differences by region.”
Over the past 20 years the experiences of being hit and harmed on purpose have remained almost stagnant, minus a dip in 2012.
However, Northland students were more likely than Aucklandbased kids to be hit or harmed on purpose. Overall, younger students, as well as Ma¯ori and Pacific youth, were more likely to be hit.
Substance use among young people in the three regions has decreased by nearly half.
Clark said the stigma attached to Ma¯ori and people living in poverty was unwarranted as “violence is across the board”.
Clark highlighted the fact there was very little difference across the regions as being “really important”.
“We start thinking that our kids are the worst and everything up here is really awful but our young people are telling us they’re experiencing similar challenges.”