Earl Moxam, Senior Gleaner Writer

Complaining of a disturbing number of rapes and other forms of sexual offences on the Mona campus of the University of the West Indies (UWI), a female advocacy group on the campus is calling for special legislation and other measures to combat the problem at all universities in Jamaica.

The recommendation was made yesterday by the Society for the Upliftment and Advancement of Women Via Education (SUAWVE), a group based at the UWI's Mary Seacole Hall, during a presentation to the joint select committee of Parliament considering legislative changes relating to sexual offences.

Real-life incidents

Lanoy Crumbie, president of SUAWVE, related three real-life incidents on the campus: In the first incident, she said a female student attending a party on campus was gang-raped by male students from her class, who videotaped the assault. Student number two was raped by her male study partner in his on-campus bedroom, after they had finished studying. The third student was raped by a classmate, whom she had invited to her bedroom; but he flatly denied that it was rape, since she had invited him to her room and, by her own admission, he did not use physical force.

Crumbie admitted, however, that none of these incidents had been reported to the university authorities or the police, citing the victims' reluctance to undergo the "trauma" associated with rape cases.

Responding to the report, Joseph Pereira, deputy principal of the Mona campus, also made clear in an interview with The Gleaner, however, that these incidents had not been brought to the attention of the university administration.

"If we received such reports we would investigate them and respond appropriately and put remedial measures in place", he said. As to what additional measures could be introduced by the university, he said some "draconian" steps might have to be introduced, "such as forbidding students going to others' room but having to entertain them elsewhere".

Drawing on precedence in the United States university system, Noelle Nichols, resident advisor for SUAWVE, told the committee that there was a clear need to have legislation specifically targeting so-called acquaintance rape on university campuses, in response to similar crises on campuses in that country.

The problem, she said, was often related to a difficulty in defining and categorizing what happens between students who know each other and might even have been together by agreement. "Being violated by someone who had your trust and confidence is different from being violated by a stranger. When victims are not confident that their definition coincides with the legal definition, they often seek other forms of redress" she said.

Nichols also called for an automatic no-contact order against the accused when a charge is laid. This, she said, would prevent the accused from initiating any direct verbal or non-verbal, electronic and third-party contacts with the victim; a matter of particular significance since both of them might be attending the same classes.

Kent Pantry, the Director of Public Prosecutions, told the committee that most of the scenarios outlined by the students advocates were "everyday occurrences" in the courts in Jamaica, and, therefore, new legislation, in isolation, would not suffice. It required more fundamental changes in societal attitudes, which would see a greater level of acceptance that rape by acquaintances, was likely to occur, he said.

Regarding the attitude of the UWI administration, Nichols alleged that the university had developed a sexual harassment policy as far back as 1993 but had not yet implemented it. Pereira said, however, that the administration had already implemented "significant sanctions" against sexual harassment. Where allegations are investigated (with testimony in private) and substantiated, sanctions will include expulsion of the guilty party, if he/she is a student and termination where it is a member of staff, he said.