JFJ: Consensual sex between minors should not be a crime

[Jim Burton]

https://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/lea ... t-be-crime

Sexual offences, particularly consensual sexual intercourse with a person under 16, make up the majority of cases referred to Jamaica’s Child Diversion Programme, launched in 2020 to redirect children in conflict with the law from the courts to rehabilitative interventions.

Between March 2020 and June 2024, such cases accounted for 62 per cent of the 1,517 referrals, ahead of assault-related offences (15%), property crimes like larceny (7%), disorderly conduct and indecent language (2%), and drug-related offences at less than one per cent.

For multiple reasons, human-rights group Jamaicans for Justice (JFJ) is calling for the decriminalisation of consensual sexual intercourse between minors.

[Not Forever]

One step further, and consensual sex in general could be decriminalized, since... well, it's consensual.

[Jim Burton]

https://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/esp ... se-age-law

Conflicting views on whether consensual sexual activity between minors close in age should be decriminalised have resurfaced, underscoring a debate that has persisted for years. Rights advocates, including Jamaicans for Justice, maintain that criminalisation runs counter to the goals of the Child Diversion Programme by pushing adolescents into the justice system for consensual behaviour. In contrast, child-rights lobby Hear the Children’s Cry has repeatedly warned that removing criminal sanctions could weaken protections for children.

[Jim Burton]

https://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/com ... derage-sex

As he has promised, Delroy Chuck should act with urgency in having Parliament decide on decriminalising sex between minors who are close in age.

They should.

Minister Chuck’s promise of the parliamentary review, is by way of a joint select committee of the legislature – which will evaluate the performance of the Child Diversion Act over its five years of operation – in the face of a new round of discussion over how underage children who engage in consensual sex should be treated. The debate was triggered by a finding by the rights group Jamaicans for Justice (JFJ) that 62 per cent of the 1,517 cases referred to the Child Diversion Programme between March 2020 and June 2024 related to sexual encounters –many of them consensual relationships between teens, at least one of whom is below the age of consent.

Such sexual engagements are perforce criminal, sometimes involving at least one of the partners, usually the male, being arrested and charged for an offence and taken before the courts.

However, under the Child Diversion Programme which was launched in 2020, cases involving minors, including underage sex, may be diverted from the courts to rehabilitative interventions such as counselling, education and other support services. This is undoubtedly a good scheme, with the potential for placing thousands of children, who might otherwise be lost in an often corrosive criminal justice system, on a potentially life-saving, positive path.