Gareth Manning, Sunday Gleaner Reporter

Clarke

Advocates have taken issue with a proposal by Children's Advocate Mary Clarke to have sexual offence laws amended so young girls who have consensual sex with males are held accountable under the law.

The Children's Advocate said last week that it was unfair for boys alone to be charged under the law when some girls consent and encourage the sexual activity that takes place between the two.

"Where the activity is forced, punish the men, yes, it is a violation of somebody's human right and somebody's body," she said. "But should those who have given consent, who have been part of the act, go free? I want us to think about that," Clarke told a group of Labour Ministry officials at the St. Paul's United Church last week. She said she was asking for the recommendation to be at least considered.

But attorney-at-law Margarette Macaulay says the utterance by Clarke was unfortunate. While she agrees there are girls who often consent or even encourage sex with men and boys, there is no need to hold them responsible under law.

"If (a girl) is in fact say 13 and when she dresses up she can pass for 18, and she does seduce somebody, there is obviously something wrong with her," said MaCaulay. "So how do you charge her with an offence? That can't be the answer."

She says such girls need to be counselled and given therapy and provided with the necessary information on sex and reproductive health so they can make informed decisions instead of being locked up.

Executive Director of the Women's Centre Foundation of Jamaica, Beryl Weir supports Macaulay's view to not apply punitive measures to consenting girls, but she is proposing that the laws be taught in schools.

Punitive measures

She insist there are boys and girls who do not understand that what they are doing is an offence under the law, so there needs to be more information in schools to educate those who will most likely become victims.

"In all of this that we are doing, we have to be sure that we are not criminalising sexual activity, because sexual activity is a normal thing and it depends on the context in which it takes place, and the age of the persons who are having sex," she notes.