KINGSTON, Jamaica-Child protection agency Hear The Children’s Cry (HTCC) has opposed the Government’s proposed decriminalisation of sexual offences by minors.

The organisation’s spokesperson, attorney Priscilla Duhaney, in a statement, said the HTCC is of the opinion that there must be a balancing act and disagrees with the concept of “the close-in-age” exception.

“There can be no justification or pardon for sexual offences. It is not a frivolous matter for one to believe experimenting is a defence or an excuse. One’s innocence is eradicated by another hence why we are seeing the consequences of children rapidly becoming parents and the increase in sexual diseases in our society amongst youths. We would like to dismiss the thought process that experimenting is to be pardoned,” she said.

“We acknowledge the fact that our society is plagued with child sexual offences as the records show the alarming numbers of these types of offences. Therefore, we agree that there is a need for social intervention as much as divine and legal intervention as the root causes are to be identified and addressed.”

She is advocating for the necessary sanctions to be put in place for youths who sexually violate each other with or without consent. She however noted that these sanctions should include social intervention.

“HTCC propose that sanctions should be put in place for youths who sexually violate each other with or without consent but the law should speak to actively instituting social intervention during this period of incarceration and furthermore, we stipulate a shorter period for expungement so that they can be reinstated into the society at an appropriate age for completing their education or joining the workforce. It is our belief that for consensual parties under the age of 16 years, suspended sentence should be applied with community service and other social intervention strategies if and only, if it is a first-time offence. This however, should still be placed on the record and thereafter a reasonably short period for expungement,” Duhaney said.

She said an offence of that nature should be treated with great importance and a penalty that is equivalent in some way to deter the offender, whether it be first or repeated.

“Having knowledge of what transpired in October last year to the 13-year-old girl in Portmore, it is not comforting to accept that close age, experiment, or a mere social intervention would suffice in this matter. There must be a precedent set to deter and penalise the disregard for sexual sanctity. It is imperative that we consider the impact that this proposed amendment to legislation will have on the victim, the victim’s family and friends. For those reasons, decriminalising the offence would be a great injustice to those directly impacted and the larger society,” she concluded.