A substantial majority of Jamaicans accept, in principle, that forcible sex by men with their married or common-law partners is tantamount to rape, a recent survey revealed.

In a Gleaner-commissioned Bill Johnson poll, 66 per cent of respondents believed that a man commits rape if he violently forces his wife or long-time partner to have sex with him against herwill.

Thirty-one per cent disagreed with the claim, while three per cent were undecided. When disaggregated along gender lines, 80 per cent of female respondents said marital rape was feasible in those circumstances. Among the men, a much smaller majority - 53 per cent - said the man's actions would constitute rape.

Controversial circumstance

In response to the more controversial circumstance of whether a woman can also be guilty of raping a man if she violently forces him to have sex with her against his will, 52 per cent of the respondents answered 'yes' compared to 44 per cent who disagreed. Four per cent said they did not know.

Sixty-four per cent of the women agreed with the claim, while only 41 per cent of the men answered in the affirmative.

A joint select committee of Parliament recently accepted a recommendation that marital rape be defined as a criminal offence under Jamaican law.

The legislation will clearly define the circumstances in which this might occur, in order not to create unintended circumstances in which a man is unfairly charged with the offence.

The issue was again raised in the Upper House on Friday when the committee's report was debated. Senator Dorothy Lightbourne of the Opposition called for the matter to be handled delicately, perhaps even given separate treatment from the rest of sexual offences being targeted.

Senator A.J. Nicholson, the Attorney-General and Leader of Government Business in the Senate, was sympathetic to this view, and suggested that marital rape could be given separate treatment through an amendment to the Domestic Violence Act.

The offence of rape, which is currently part of the Offences Against the Person Act, will be incorporated in the new Sexual Offences Act. It is unlikely, however, that the offence in which a woman forces a man to engage in sexual intercourse with her will be defined as rape.

In the proposed bill, rape will retain its traditional definition, confining the offence to penile penetration of the vagina byforce, against the will of the woman. Other acts including penetration will fall under a newly created offence to be known as 'grievous sexual assault'.