Jackson Free Press

What is violence? What can be done to change the attitudes of men and boys?

On Oct. 24, Roughly 25 participants—students, activists, counselors, police officers and interested community members—gathered in a United Way of Mississippi conference room on N. Congress Street to engage in the questions of violence. Donna Antoine-LaVigne of Jackson State University led the group in one of several violence-prevention fact-finding forums under the auspices of the Mississippi Department of Health.

"The ultimate goal is to develop a violence-prevention plan for the state of Mississippi," said Antoine-LaVigne, who plans to complete a draft report by Oct. 31. "It's not about what has happened," she said, "it's about preventing it before it happens."

Asked whether college-age young people would benefit from sexual violence prevention education, participants agreed that such education needs to begin much earlier. "That's too late," said activist, artist and Jackson Free Press columnist Kamikaze. The consensus was that talking to children about sexual abuse and violence needs to begin in the home, and needs to begin before children go to school. We need to "take the shame out of it," one participant said regarding sexual topics in general, and sexual violence and abuse in particular.

The forum also addressed the issue of bullying, and participants used many of the same words and phrases they used to define sexual violence: intimidation, control and abuse of power. The question highlighted the fact that school-yard bullying is often a precursor of violent tendencies in adulthood. It is the same phenomenon at a different age.

Teaching parenting skills, the availability of mentoring programs and continuous publicity were some of the suggestions offered to change attitudes. Participants said that getting men to talk with boys about how to treat women with dignity is an especially important component. They also agreed that there is much more to violence than physicality. "There's so much violence in the tongue," said Dorothy McGill, who assisted Antoine-LaVigne in leading the discussion, referring to the fact that abuse is often emotional and psychological, not just physical.

System Specialists of Jackson and the Jackson Rape Crisis Center of Catholic Charities co-hosted the forums, holding additional sessions in Hattiesburg on Oct. 22 and Natchez on Oct. 24. The final report should be complete by the end of 2007.