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THE recent upsurge in cases of domestic violence is a serious cause for concern for generality of the population.
Newspapers are awash with graphic details of this cancer to society perpetrated with utter disregard of the harmful consequences on both the victims and the innocent children that are forced to witness it.
But perhaps it is not enough for the court to punish the offending parties with the hope that sheer incarceration and exclusion from society will rehabilitate them and create a sense of remorse.
It is our feeling that incarceration or whatever form of violence is simply not enough to complete the process of reform and to achieve the much-anticipated rehabilitation of the individual. We feel that the process of rehabilitation is never complete without some form of counselling for not only the victim but the perpetrator of the crime.
Recently we carried a story of a convicted abuser who beat up his wife for failing to bring him food while serving his community sentence at the very doorstep of the justice delivery system — the court.
The fact that the convict was serving a sentence for abusing the same victim to whom he directed the attack resonates all too well with our clarion call that incarceration alone is not enough to rehabilitate the perpetrators of domestic violence.
That the second crime was committed right at the doorstep of the court speaks volumes of the lack of appreciation that the convict has of the gravity of his first crime and the process of reformation that the sentence he is serving are seeking to achieve.
With proper counselling mechanisms in place we can reclaim and rehabilitate the abuser and inculcate in him not only the full appreciation of the gravity of his offence but also the need to avoid backsliding to his misdeed.
After all punishment without rehabilitation is merely retribution and breeds fertile ground for incidence of repeat offenders.
If we do not nip the practice of domestic violence in the bud, we run the risk of having to deal with the scourge of femicide that our neighbours South Africa are currently grappling to curtail. The time is now not to only seek to incarcerate the abuser but to move to stop him/ her from mutating into a cold-blooded killer. With meaningful and effective counselling mechanisms we can not empower psychologically the victim of abuse but also reform and rehabilitate the perpetrator.
Online Reporter