Petrina Francis, Gleaner Writer
GROWING CASES of rape against women and children across the island have sparked strong calls for longer and more stringent sentences for perpetrators.
"I think that every rapist should go to jail for life, because rape is like murder," said gender expert and consultant, Dr. Glenda Simms.
She said the impact that rape has on a woman is so horrific that there can be no sympathy towards anyone who commits such an act.
Dr. Simms explained that some rapists are sent to prison, but when they are released back in the society, they repeat the offence.
"I am not sure whether they can be rehabilitated," she added.
Attorney-at-law Margarette MaCaulay said there is disparity in the sentences that criminals get in Jamaica and this is a cause for concern. She said that while some offenders get long sentences, others usually get "a tap on the wrist", especially when the act is classified as carnal abuse.
Mrs. MaCaulay pointed out that Jamaica does not have a guideline for sentencing as it relates to sexual offences. She noted that such a guideline exists in the Eastern Caribbean.
To this end, the attorney-at-law said she was trying to obtain guidelines on sentences around the Commonwealth to advocate that similar trends are followed in Jamaica.
"It annoys and upsets me when I hear of women and children suffering. Something has to be done because we have too many sexual offences being committed ...," she told The Sunday Gleaner.
The lawyer noted that a petty sentence sends the wrong message that rape is not taken seriously. The discretion of judges, she said, had to be done in a way that demonstrated that the crime of rape was deemed to be a serious offence.
But Beryl Weir, executive director of the Women's Centre, said locking away rapists for a long time is not the only solution to the problem because they will repeat the offence.
"There has to be some kind of intervention to go with locking them up. Psychological counselling has to be involved, because if that does not happen, there will be no change in their behaviour pattern," said Mrs. Weir.
Section 44 (1) of the Offences Against the Person Act stipulates that, 'Whosoever shall be convicted of the crime of rape shall be guilty of felony, and being convicted thereof, shall be liable to imprisonment for life". But in many cases, the perpetrators are given 'light penalties'.
SENTENCES FOR RAPE
The Department of Corrections reported that since 2002, the shortest sentence for rape was four years and the longest was 25 years.
Inspector Grace Gordon, who is attached to the Centre for Investigation of Sexual Offences and Child Abuse (CISOCA), pointed out that there are a variety of rapes. She noted that a woman can be raped by one man or by several men, the latter known as battery. She told The Sunday Gleaner that CISOCA received a report recently where five men had raped a woman.
She said if a girl under the age of 16 is raped, it is called carnal abuse, but if a boy or man is raped, it is known as buggery.
The latest publicised cases of rape occurred a week and a half ago when three women were abducted from a bar on First Street, Newport West, by armed men, who raped, robbed and shot them. The women were then thrown into a sewage main but one managed to escape and reported the incident to the police. The other two are presumed dead.
The police theorise that the women were victims of a feud between the McKenley and Compound gangs.
Hilary Nicholson, training coordinator at Women's Media Watch, said there have been cases of reprisal killings but the society is now seeing incidents of "'reprisal' rapes". She speculated as to whether the rape of girls and women was being perpetrated by men in order to take revenge, terrorise and dehumanise entire communities and the families whose members had been raped and killed, in some cases.
