ACCORDING to one psychologist, the gruesome murder of eight-year-old Danielle Rowe, which the prime minister has described as deeply disturbing and barbaric, shows nothing but Jamaica’s true colours.

“This is who we have become. This is the country that we have become. We keep saying this and saying that, but for the past 20 or more years we have been having this kind of band-aid situation to the kind of violence that has been increasing in the country,” James Dibbs, founder and CEO of Sajirah Assessments and Intervention Services Ltd, told the Jamaica Observer.

“Unfortunately, there are so many of our children living in this kind of situation; this kind of violence, abuse on children is like the norm,” he added, noting that the impact on children in Danielle’s community, Jamaican youth at large, her family, and schoolmates will be tremendous.

Danielle, a student of Braeton Primary in Portmore, St Catherine, was last Thursday taken from the institution in a motor car, transported to Vineyard Town in St Andrew and thrown from the vehicle.

She was reportedly found by passers-by with her throat slashed, and was rushed to hospital, where she succumbed to her injuries early Saturday morning.

In addition, Dr Beverley Scott, child and family therapist who was stunned by the incident, said that no righteous person would kill a child, let alone in such a manner.

“We are in a society where a lot of people are mentally distraught, mentally ill. Nobody in their right mind would do something like that. The country has not gone mad; it’s the people inside it who have gone mad. People are not moral anymore…there is a lot of immorality around the place and a lot of indecency,” she told the Observer.

Scott continued: “Nobody in their right mind would conceive anything like this. So, we have a lot of sick people and we better face it and get help for them. People used to care for people’s children. People’s minds are being thwarted and people have become unstable in one way or the other.”

Since the start of the year, eight children have been murdered, three of whom under 12 years old.

In a distraught tone, Dibbs said Braeton Primary was most likely inconsolable today.

“I can think of the school, those children who turned up at school Monday morning recognising that she [Danielle] is not there anymore. So, it is going to affect the school community, and also the community that she lived in,” he said.

Dibbs said the crime situation spilling over on children is deeply perturbing, but not new.

“I’ve been looking at it, I’ve worked with it, I’ve worked in it, and I have made sacrifices in communities to really try to deal with it. But it is still not getting anywhere because there seems to be a kind of bureaucracy — it is like a company doing marketing. Your product is better than the other company’s product and that’s where we are. We hear about this package, and this is what we’re doing, that is what we’re going to be doing. And then it’s all nice and well, but the end result is never there,” he told the Observer.

Children today, he added, are living in a devastating society.

“Some of us…as we think back into our childhood, we normally look back for those good things that were happening. Can you imagine that children like this child, or children that live in the lower income communities? I mean, they are going through hell,” he lamented.

The Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) has appealed to the public for any information that could lead to the arrest of those responsible for the death of Danielle.

“We are urgently calling on the public to help us bring the perpetrator(s) of this horrendous act to justice. If you have any information that you believe can assist in solving this case, please do not hesitate to contact us. Your contribution could be pivotal in helping us solve this case and bring closure to the grieving family,” the JCF urged.

People with information can contact the National Intelligence Bureau tip line at 811; Crime Stop at 311; police emergency at 119 or the nearest police station.