Gareth Manning, Gleaner Writer

FACED WITH an increase in the number of pregnancies among pre-teen and early teenage girls, women's advocates are agitating for stronger laws to rein in carnal abusers.

The Women's Centre of Jamaica Foundation, with offices islandwide, reports seeing an average of 55 pregnant young girls per year, ages 12-13, over the last four years. In fact, one 11-year-old pregnant girl was seen by the agency during the period.

In general, the incidence of pregnancy among girls under the age of 15 is decreasing, moving from 709 babies born in 1999 to 278 births in 2004, according to the state-run Statistical Institute of Jamaica. But it is the rise in pregnancy among pre-teen and early teenage girls that has alarmed caregivers such as Beryl Weir, the executive director of the Women's Centre Foundation of Jamaica.

WORRYING TREND

"It's a worrying trend because what it is saying to us is that these girls are really having sexual intercourse too early," says Mrs. Weir. She notes in some cases the girls have never menstruated because they become pregnant as soon as their ovaries mature.

The main perpetrators of carnal abuse, Mrs. Weir points out, are males 20-23 years and sometimes older. She says there are very few fathers who are the same ages as young mothers. Data from researchers Hope Enterprises corroborate this find.

A 2001 survey by the group showed nearly 44 per cent of 10-19-year-olds reported being pregnant, but only 10 per cent boys the same age said they impregnated a girl. Mrs. Weir says the girls are usually coerced into sexual relationships with older men because of varying social and economic circumstances.

Three months ago at a primary school in the Corporate Area, a 12-year-old girl was discovered pregnant. She had been raped by a man living in her tenement yard.

But she never spoke about what happened to her because he threatened her. It was not until four months later that her grandmother realised that she was pregnant after her belly appeared to be protruding. The incident is still being investigated by the police.

Attorney-at-law Margarette Macaulay is disappointed that perpetrators of carnal abuse of young girls get off on easy prison sentences, noting, "The conviction rate is not as it ought to be."

MISDEMEANOUR CHARGE

She discloses that while the Offences Against the Person Act stipulates that a man prosecuted for carnal abuse receives a sentence of life imprisonment, a man between the ages of 20-23 can be found guilty of only a misdemeanour, if he can prove he had reasonable cause to believe the child was over 16 years old the first time he is charged for the offence.

Mrs. Macaulay wants that offending provision in the law to be removed.

The attorney also believes justice for victims comes too slowly and painfully. She is particularly troubled by the fact that children have to be cross-examined under the current law. Under the Offences Against the Person Act, a victim must be cross- examined by lawyers representing the accused.

SEXUAL PAST

"That the complainant can be questioned in such a way will upset anyone about their sexual conduct, their sexual experience, their sexual past. In fact, [what they do] is put sexual blame on the child rather than where it should fall," complains Macaulay. "Quite frankly, I don't see how a girl's sexual past is relevant to a particular incident of abuse that you are complaining about ..."

She says this factors into why many cases of carnal abuse go unreported and why many perpetrators are not prosecuted. Many victims get frustrated with the process and stop showing up for court.

Ms. Macaulay, therefore, wants the law to be amended. She says a cross examination should only be allowed if the judge admits it. But her pleas have landed on deaf ears. A bill, which was tabled in 1995 to amend this section of the Offences Against the Person Act, has since been laid to rest in Parliament.

HEALTH INSTITUTIONS NOT REPORTING CASES

However, while more young girls are getting pregnant, police say health institutions are not reporting these cases of carnal abuse. Some 95 per cent of these babies are born in health institutions, but police say only a few cases come from there.

This has been so despite the advent of the Child Care and Protection Act (2004) that mandates health facilities, school administrators and guardians to report incidents of sexual or physical abuse of children. Inspector Grace Gordon of the Centre for Investigation of Sexual Offences and Child Abuse (CISOCA) says only a few of their cases come from hospitals. She says the majority of their reports come from walk-ins and police reports.

"We have cases from the institutions yes, but they are not many," she relates, adding that in rare instances, the police are sometimes called by the hospitals. There were 278 babies born to mothers under age 15 in 2004 when the act was promulgated, but Inspector Gordon says most of those cases were not reflected in the 409 carnal abuse cases reported to them that year.

Chief executive officer of the Child Development Agency, Allison Anderson, says it is difficult to know how many cases are being reported because the children's register has not been put in place. Under the Child Care and Protection Act, a children's register and registry is to be established to lodge and keep information about offences against children.

"I guess when the registry is up and running, then we would know. Because right now I wouldn't be able to say yes or no (about whether hospitals are reporting carnal abuse). But I know some of the worst cases of abuse always come through hospitals," she says.

While that may be so, Mrs. Macaulay says there is no excuse for not reporting incidents of carnal abuse among young girls. She says the incidents can be reported to the child services office in the parish or the Family Court.