More teens abusing parents

Counsellors say incidents of young people causing domestic violence are increasing Children are striking out and playing a leading role in family violence incidents in the Bay of Plenty.

Young people arguing and fighting with their parents or caregivers made up nearly one in five cases of family violence reported over the past three months.

Police handle an average of 250 complaints a month, and 18 per cent of them involved violence and children.

Tauranga Moana Abuse Prevention Strategy (TMAPS) family violence co-ordinator George Wynyard said that in most cases the violence involved the young person as the aggressor.

"A number of those [young people] would be 17 years and still under the care of the biological parents or caregivers."

Relationship Services Whakawhanaugatanga in the Bay of Plenty/Gisborne area also works with TMAPS. Its clinical leader Les Simmonds said there had been an increase in violence between young people and their parents or caregivers.

"We're seeing cases in greater numbers that we probably wouldn't have seen 10 years ago."

He said this was a reflection of an increase in violence across the board - in schools, on the streets and in homes.

Some cases related to single mothers being afraid or threatened by their sons.

Mr Wynyard moved to the Western Bay from Christchurch six months ago and took up the role at the country's first centre for investigating family violence, which officially opened in Tauranga on December 11.

He said the public often had a preconceived idea that family violence was traditionally found in poorer homes in low-decile neighbourhoods.

However, this was not the case in the Western Bay.

"As an outsider coming into the community, I find that quite alarming."

He said family violence was often inter-generational, with young people of any socio-economic group prone to mimic what they saw their parents do, as well as what they saw on television.

Mr Wynyard said there was a wide spectrum of physical violence reported to police.

"It would be fair to say that there is a lot of physical kicking, scratching, poking, grabbing, pulling, ripping."

However, he said, the abuse by young people towards their parents and caregivers was not always physical, with a lot of serious emotional abuse reported in the Western Bay.

Examples included intimidation, threats, silence and gestures, swearing and put-downs.

The violence, in some cases, was fuelled by alcohol and drug abuse, poor education and peer pressure, and Mr Wynyard said young people would often put their friends before their families.

He said it was common for young people to threaten to "do things" if they were not given what they wanted.

Mr Wynyard said the key to reaching these young people was to train staff to engage with them when an opportunity arose.

He said both staff and clients needed to know that their situation was not going to be put in the "too hard basket".

"I think there's good in everybody really. It's just a matter of tapping into it."

Mr Wynyard trained in counselling after 22 years as a guard at five of the country's prisons.

In his role at TMAPS, he co-ordinates several community organisations that meet once a week to discuss cases of family violence in the Western Bay, decide on the most high-risk, and arrange the right help.

Mr Simmonds was keen to stress the importance of acknowledging that most of New Zealand's young people did not behave violently.

- APN