‘Wayward’ rape

Chuck questions whether expanding definition renders term meaningless

DEFINITIONS OF rape are becoming “wayward”, Justice Minister Delroy Chuck has argued, suggesting that, perhaps, it is time that Jamaica removes that designation from the books and captures it under a general category such as sexual assault.

He threw out the suggestion yesterday after hearing Children’s Advocate Diahann Gordon Harrison’s recommendation that the definition of rape be changed to include protection for boys.

Under Jamaican law, rape is the penetration of the vagina with the penis without consent.

Chuck is chairman of a parliamentary committee consisting of some senators and members of Parliament, which, yesterday, held its fourth meeting since resuming work in January.

Noting various proposals that rape should cover penetration of parts of the body such as the anus, the mouth, and the nostrils, Chuck questioned whether it was not better to drop the rape designation altogether.

“Would you want to see rape remaining in its traditional definition and any other offence being a sexual assault carrying, probably, the same penalty?” he asked. “Or do you think that as many countries have done, rape should include not only penetration of the vagina, but as you say, the nose and ears? It seems to me to be getting a bit wayward.”

Police data for 2012-2014 showed that 531 rape victims were children, and Gordon Harrison said that redefining rape in the Sexual Offences Act is important.

“If we were to have the definition remain as is, it would

really expose more children, especially our boys, to not having that redress under the law because we do know that there are boys in our population who are abused both by adult men and adult women.”

If the abuse of boys involved anal penetration, it would be classified as buggery – an offence that ignores whether consent is given in cases of adults. But that offence carries a maximum penalty of 10 years’ imprisonment. Rape, however, has a minimum prison term of 15 years and a maximum penalty of life.

RICARDO MAKYN/MULTIMEDIA PHOTO EDITOR From left: Sandrene McKenzie, Callia Brown, Bryanna Hylton, and Tavol Johnson, students of Westwood High School, Trelawny, were the top presenters at the Ananda Alert National Missing Children’s Forum held at the Jamaica Conference Centre in Kingston...