GOVERNMENT Senator Sherene Golding Campbell has blasted the State’s approach to proposed changes affecting close-in-age sexual activity among minors, describing it as “unacademic” while insisting that lawmakers must rely on data rather than sentiment or pressure from interest groups.

Her criticism sparked a tense exchange with state minister in the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs Marisa Dalrymple-Philibert, who agreed that children should not be unnecessarily criminalised but argued that, from her decades of legal practice, the present law has already derailed the lives of many teenage boys.

The clash unfolded on Wednesday as Parliament’s joint select committee reviewing the Child Diversion Act considered, once again, how to treat cases involving teenagers close in age who engage in sexual activity.

The issue is particularly sensitive because sexual intercourse with a person under 16 remains an offence. This can bring teenagers close in age into the criminal justice system, even where the conduct is said to have been voluntary.

Committee Chairman Delroy Chuck told members that law reform officials were preparing to take a close-in-age proposal to Cabinet, based on recommendations first made in 2017. The proposal, he said, would decriminalise consensual sexual activity between teenagers close in age.

However, he said the Jamaica Umbrella Group of Churches has argued that children, particularly younger children, involved in consensual sexual activity should still be referred to the Child Diversion Programme.

Golding Campbell questioned whether the committee had established what diversion would achieve in cases where there was no coercion, exploitation or abuse.

“I have to say that I find our approach to the matter of the quote-unquote consensual sex between minors unacademic and a little lacking in diligence. And I say that, chairman, because it’s not about our feelings. It’s not about how groups feel when they come before us, but the relevant authority has the duty to conduct the kind of research to inform members of the legislature in terms of what pertains, what the data is,” she said.

Dalrymple-Philibert pushed back, saying the effects of the current law were evident in rural courtrooms, even if formal data was needed.

“I want to differ greatly with you, Senator, with the greatest of respect, probably because for my 43 years of practise in rural Jamaica most of the cases — and when you say data, I don’t have data, but I can tell you — if you have 20 cases there, 15 of them are for children who are close in age who have had sex. And I’m going to tell you, the lives of several of our young boys have come to an end because of this sort of situation,” she noted.

Golding Campbell later clarified that she was not disputing the need to protect young people from unnecessary criminalisation. Her objection was to allowing personal experience, however compelling, to substitute for evidence-based lawmaking.

“So we cannot make policy on the basis of a significant number, you must know the numbers. You must know what happens to them. And it’s not about 43 or 53 or even 110 years of experience. We have to study this thing properly because, like the minister says, it impacts the lives of real people, real children,” she added.

The senator also challenged the idea that diversion could simply steer teenagers away from sexual activity. After Chuck suggested that a programme could encourage them to focus on school and extracurricular activities, Golding Campbell questioned what such intervention would actually teach.

“What are you teaching them? Are you teaching them not to have sex or not to have sex when they’re of a certain age, or ignore the feelings that they have? What are you teaching them? Or they can kiss, but they can’t have sex. I can’t imagine what this programme would teach you on a matter like that. And minister, does that prevent them from having the feelings? We need to get serious about this, because we’re not serious,” she added.

Data presented later in the meeting showed that sexual intercourse with a person under 16 was the second most common offence for which children aged 12 to 17 were arrested between 2020 and 2024.

Senior deputy director in the Legal Reform Department at the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs Nicole Wright said 129 children were arrested for that offence during the period, behind assault occasioning bodily harm which accounted for 142 arrests.

Wright also cited analysis attributed to Jamaicans for Justice showing that of 1,517 referrals to the Child Diversion Programme between March 2020 and January 2024, 690 children successfully completed the programme. Of those completed matters, 62 per cent involved sexual offences, particularly consensual sexual intercourse with persons under 16.