Gang Town by Don Pinnock

Author:Don Pinnock
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Gangs, gangsters, gangs in South Africa, Cape Town gangs, Gangsterism, Cape Town, violent crime, organised crime, wealth gap, poverty and crime, apartheid, youth crime, Cape Flats, manhood, social welfare, policing strategy, Pagad, District six, District 6, Urban racial segregation, Prison gangs, Merchant gangs, War on drugs, Building communities, Child Justice Act, nonfiction ebook, South African author
Publisher: Tafelberg
Published: 2016-03-01T16:00:00+00:00

Mothers: prenatal problems

For some young people, their problems go even deeper than failed paternal relationships and family attachments. The more I explored life-course-persistent behaviour, the clearer it became that I needed to begin before the moment of conception: on the Cape Flats, motherhood was also under severe strain. Just getting enough food is a problem. At high levels of food insecurity among the poorest women in the area, beco­ming pregnant runs the risk of negative prenatal and neonatal outcomes from insufficient intake of iron, calcium, folate and vitamin A as well as from anaemia and depression.25 Added to this is the use by mothers of substances that work against the healthy development of a foetus. Let’s begin with alcohol.

South Africa has the highest reported rate of foetal alcohol syndrome in the world – seven in every 100.26 The World Health Organisation rated South Africa at four on a hazardous alcohol consumption scale of one-to-five, with one being the least and five the most hazardous. It found a cumulative consumption among South African drinkers at 35 litres of pure alcohol a year.27

Foetal exposure to alcohol can alter several brain structures, including the corpus callosum, which connects the two halves of the brain. Studies have found that children prenatally exposed to alcohol can suffer from serious deficits in gene regulation, cognition and behavioural problems as well as from changes in brain structure. Damage from prenatal trauma has been associated with violent teenager behaviour in later years.28 Marked changes have been found in the hippocampus, cerebellum, corpus callosum and basal ganglia of children born to mothers who drank during pregnancy.

These problems can result in children with decreased brain size, stunted growth, distinctive facial features, physical defects as well as developmental delays and disabilities.29 There were also later deficits found in learning and memory as well as problem behaviours such as alcohol use, hyperactivity, impulsivity and poor socialisation and communication skills. Children exposed to high levels of alcohol while in-utero tend to act without first considering the consequences of their behaviour or have difficulty with activities that require problem solving. They cannot plan a sequence of activities. Even if these children have average IQ scores, they struggle to succeed in school.30 In adolescence, they tend to be more involved with delinquency.31

Smoking is common among pregnant mothers in the Western Cape and has a greater impact on prenatal life than is generally imagined. A study found that the offspring of mothers who smoked while pregnant were twice as likely to have a criminal record by age 22 in a sample of 5,966.32 Another study, using a birth cohort of 4 169 males, found a twofold increase in adult violent offending if their mothers smoked during pregnancy.33

Tik also poses major hazards to the unborn child. Professor Johan Smith, head of the Neonatal Unit at Tygerberg Hospital in Cape Town, estimates that around 200 000 people in the Western Cape use the drug, many of them pregnant women. The unit assessed that between 500 and 1 000 babies are born to tik-using mothers in the Western Cape each year.

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