Carnal abuse hush-up - Fear, culture of silence hinder prosecutions
published:
Monday | October 13, 2008
Michelle-Ann Letman, Staff Reporter
The failure of families, parents, communities and state regulatory bodies to report cases of carnal abuse against Jamaica's children has resulted in a large number of perpetrators going unpunished.
The disparity between the reports received by the law enforcement agency that probes sex crimes and child abuse watchdogs suggests that many cases are not referred to the police.
The Children's Registry - the state body which refers child abuse cases to the Child Development Agency or the Office of the Children's Advocate - has received 541 reports of carnal abuse up to September this year.
Moms mum
However, the Centre for the Investigation of Sexual Offences and Child Abuse - the police sex-crime agency - recorded only 267 cases up to August.
A major stumbling block to investigations, a police source told The Gleaner, is the culture of silence in which teen mothers - some of whom fear for their lives - refuse to rat out offenders.
"While there has been some success, there is a great reluctance by underage mothers to reveal the fathers of their children," said the police source who requested anonymity.
"This is because of fear, fear which sometimes borders on the extreme. In other words, they are afraid of being physically harmed, murdered," the senior police source told The Gleaner.
The informant said, however, that the police had stepped up vigilance in the last two to three years by visiting maternity wards at hospitals islandwide.
Zöe Simpson, director of field operations at the Women's Centre of Jamaica Foundation, told The Gleaner that the centre does not report such cases to the Children's Registry or the police.
"The primary concern is the teenage mother," Simpson said.
She said, however, that the parents of the pregnant teenagers are encouraged to make the report.
Similar non-interventionist decisions are made by many school authorities when teenage pregnancies emerge.
No evidence of coercion
Doran Dixon, president of the Jamaica Teachers' Association (JTA), said that if there is no evidence of coercion, the decision to report the matter to the police is left to the parent.
"There is not a formal protocol in place but the guidance counsellor, who is aware of the law, will contact the parents and bring them in for discussion and the decision is left to the parents to report it," said Dixon.
The JTA boss said school administrators generally do not want to usurp parental authority.
Under Jamaican law, sex with girls under the age of 16 is statutory rape.
The Child Care and Protection Act makes it mandatory for persons who suspect child abuse to make a report to state agencies.
The act reads: "Any person who has information to suspect that a child has been, is being or is likely to be abandoned, neglected, or physically or sexually ill-treated (should) report the matter to the Children's Registry."
In an interview with The Gleaner earlier this year, Beryl Weir, the centre's executive director, said that from 2006-2007, just under half the 1,544 enrollees - 766 - became pregnant between 12 and 16 years old.
Fearful facts
Child Registry received 3,772 reports of child abuse from January to September 2008.
Of that number, 541 cases are reports of carnal abuse.
The Centre for the Investigation of Sexual Offences and Child Abuse recorded only 267 cases of carnal abuse up to August this year.
For the corresponding period of 2007, some 212 cases were recorded.
Year
Age
No. pregnant
2004
under 15
278
2005
under 15
301
2006
under 15
211
Year
Age
No. pregnant
2004
15-19
6,456
2005
15-19
6,676
2006
15-19
6,343
Statistics provided by the Registrar General's Department
