Deyalsingh: Violence in home invasions driven by trauma, hate

CHESTER SAM­BRA­NO

Lead Ed­i­tor - News­gath­er­ing

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Psy­chi­a­trist Dr Var­ma Deyals­ingh says a mix of so­cial, psy­cho­log­i­cal and bi­o­log­i­cal fac­tors can dri­ve the ex­treme vi­o­lence seen in some home in­va­sions, as he ad­dressed the is­sue dur­ing an ap­pear­ance on CNC3’s The Morn­ing Brew to­day.

He ex­plained that while many of­fend­ers en­ter homes in­tend­ing to steal, vi­o­lence can es­ca­late due to deep­er emo­tion­al and so­cial in­flu­ences.

“When you’re do­ing a home in­va­sion, some­times it’s re­al­ly a com­bi­na­tion of per­son­al his­to­ry, en­vi­ron­ment, and op­por­tu­ni­ty,” he said. “It’s not just tak­ing the be­long­ings for mon­e­tary gains, but it’s to teach them a les­son, to show them.”

Deyals­ingh said some of­fend­ers de­vel­op re­sent­ment to­wards per­ceived wealth or priv­i­lege, which can fu­el ag­gres­sion.

“Those per­sons have mon­ey… they are more priv­i­leged than me. So, some in­di­vid­u­als are now de­vel­op­ing that lev­el of hate, that lev­el of de­spise to­wards in­di­vid­u­als,” he said, adding that acts of vi­o­lence can al­so give of­fend­ers a sense of pow­er and con­trol.

He point­ed to up­bring­ing and so­cial con­di­tions as key con­trib­u­tors to crim­i­nal be­hav­iour, say­ing chil­dren raised in en­vi­ron­ments marked by pover­ty, vi­o­lence or in­sta­bil­i­ty may come to view crime as nor­mal.

“A child grows up with a clean slate, but what that child sees, what that child ex­pe­ri­ences… will now cre­ate an in­di­vid­ual, an adult, who may dis­like so­ci­ety, who may hate au­thor­i­ty,” he said.

He added that the ab­sence of strong fam­i­ly struc­tures, in­clud­ing parental at­tach­ment in ear­ly child­hood, can af­fect emo­tion­al de­vel­op­ment.

“If a child doesn’t have an at­tach­ment fig­ure with­in the first two to three years of life… that child… may end up with a lit­tle sort of a dis­like, a dis­gust for so­ci­ety be­cause their needs were not met,” he said.

Deyals­ingh al­so ref­er­enced so­cial learn­ing, ex­plain­ing that ex­po­sure to crime with­out con­se­quences can re­in­force crim­i­nal be­hav­iour. “If my com­mu­ni­ty shows me that… peo­ple are com­mit­ting crimes and get­ting away… I learn that prob­a­bly crime is ben­e­fi­cial,” he said.

He said ear­ly warn­ing signs can in­clude school dropouts, lack of role mod­els and be­hav­iour­al is­sues in chil­dren, such as harm­ing oth­ers, cru­el­ty to an­i­mals or per­sis­tent rule-break­ing. These, he ex­plained, may point to con­duct dis­or­ders or an­ti­so­cial per­son­al­i­ty traits.

Ad­dress­ing the im­pact of vi­o­lent crime on chil­dren, Deyals­ingh warned that wit­ness­ing trau­mat­ic events, such as the killing of a par­ent, can have last­ing psy­cho­log­i­cal ef­fects.

He re­ferred to what he de­scribed as the “Bat­man syn­drome,” where trau­ma can shape a child’s world­view and be­hav­iour. While sup­port ser­vices ex­ist, he said more long-term in­ter­ven­tion is need­ed.

“A child could wit­ness that trau­ma, go in­to de­pres­sion, have that stress, have post-trau­mat­ic stress… track­ing them through­out their adult­hood is some­thing we have to do,” he said.

Deyals­ingh al­so raised con­cerns about what he de­scribed as grow­ing de­sen­si­ti­sa­tion to vi­o­lence in so­ci­ety, not­ing that fre­quent ex­po­sure can lead peo­ple to nor­malise crime.

“Peo­ple who may have ex­po­sure to vi­o­lence… to them, that’s a way of life,” he said. “The numb­ness is there be­cause… it’s hap­pen­ing so of­ten. Once it’s not hap­pen­ing to me or my fam­i­ly, I ac­cept it.”

He warned that this de­tach­ment can weak­en em­pa­thy and re­duce will­ing­ness to as­sist vic­tims, as in­di­vid­u­als pri­ori­tise their own safe­ty.