Edmond Campbell, Senior News Coordinator

A.J. Nicholson - Ian Allen/Staff Photographer

A proposal to make the offence of rape gender-neutral has reportedly triggered a sharp divide among members of the Jamaican Bar Association (JBA) and other groups in the society.

At a meeting yesterday of the joint select committee of Parliament examining amendments to the Offences Against the Person Act and the Incest Punishment Act, Justice Minister Senator A.J. Nicholson said members of the JBA were split on the proposal to create a gender-neutral law for the offence of rape.

To date, the committee has received only one submission. The JBA is expected to make its submission at a later date after arriving at a consensus on the provisions of the bill. Submissions are also expected from a number of interest groups.

Options to consider

Mr. Nicholson, who chairs the committee, told his parliamentary colleagues that they should consider whether to adopt gender-neutral legislation for the crime, or create other categories of offences to deal with the sexual assault of men or boys.

"What we are asking members to do is to think whether we (should) put everything into one basket and call it rape, or stick to the well-known formula and then, those other acts which are of the same kind but committed on boys and men, whether we should not have another kind of offence for it," he explained.

Under the amended Offences Against the Person Act, the definition of rape and sexual intercourse has been expanded to include 'penetrative acts', instead of 'penetrative act', which now constitutes sexual intercourse for the purposes of rape.

Under the current law, rape is gender specific and can only be committed by a male against a female.

However, the new definition will make it a gender-neutral offence which can be committed by either male or female and against both genders.

The gender-neutral provision is also being introduced to protect young boys and men.

Another contentious subject in the legislation is the issue of marital rape, where one spouse has sexual intercourse with the other without his/her consent. However, the Director of Public Prosecutions would be required to hand down a ruling on whether prosecution should follow.

Another area of reform, in relation to rape, is the abolition of the presumption that a boy under the age of 14 years is incapable of committing rape. However, this presumption will not affect the statutory provision, which fixes the minimum age of criminal responsibility at 12 years.

Meanwhile, under the Incest Punishment Act the maximum penalty proposed for the crime is life imprisonment.

Committee members Sharon Hay-Webster and Olivia 'Babsy' Grange raised concern about the growing problem of sexual abuse, particularly of young girls in inner-city communities, adding that an increasing number of these incidents are not being reported.