It takes two hands to clap; why just penalise the man?
She was just 15 years old when she became pregnant in 2007, and made a police report alleging she had been raped by her 20-year-old boyfriend.
But police investigations revealed the teenage girl had been sexually active since August 2006, and has had sex with two other men, aged 19 and 22 years old, after chatting with them online.
In April this year, all three men were convicted for having sex with a minor, and were fined $3,000 each, although the district judge noted that the sex was consensual in all the cases.
Like many other cases of sexual offences involving minors, it was not disclosed if the girl was punished for her part in the offence - but the likelihood is that she would have got off scot-free.
Lawyers tell MediaCorp that girls involved in under-age sex cases are not charged or punished even if they had initiated the sexual relationship.
Said lawyer Chia Boon Teck: “There is little sympathy for the man no matter how proactive the girl was in wanting sex.
“The onus is on the man to make sure the girl is above age.”
In an age when more teenagers below the legal age of 16 for consensual sex are having sex - sometimes with the under-aged girl initiating the act - are we indulging the girls by absolving them of responsibility for their actions?
Counsellors say that in cases where it is clear the girl is a willing party or even initiated the sex, they should bear part of the responsibility.
Some 310 girls under 16 were caught last year for engaging in consensual sex- a 44 per cent increase from 216 in 2007. In the first half of this year alone, the police recorded 37 cases of statutory rape involving minors below 14 who had consensual sex, up from 21 in the same period last year.
Mrs Chong Cheh Hoon, senior vice-president of Focus On The Family, said: “Research has shown that for any juvenile crimes or sexual promiscuous behaviour, the chance of re-offence is higher when there is no or minimum therapeutic or intervening actions.”
Perhaps the courts can impose a probation sentence on the girls or pack them off to a home.
But that may be too harsh since the girl has technically not committed an offence and is classified as a victim.
The way forward may be to send the girls for mandatory counselling to learn values like self-respect and responsibility, say counsellors.
But with resources an issue, it may not be easy to implement such a system.
Said Mr. Noel Tan, co-founder of Sanctuary House which provides crisis pregnancy services and specialised family-education programmes, said: “We can get counselling centres to help these girls but the challenge is the extra work on the staff.”
There is also the battle to get families to support the girls and make sure they turn up for counselling sessions - a challenge especially in cases where the parents take a hands-off parenting approach.
But perhaps a bigger worry is that if the courts were to penalise the girl, the number of under-age sex cases reported to the police may drop significantly.
“Why would a girl stand out when she knows she will be punished and has to bear the stigma of having her sexual affairs exposed?” asked lawyer Premchand Soman.
In South Korea and Spain, the legal age of consent for sex is 13; for China and Italy, it is 14 - while for countries like India, the United Kingdom and the United States, it is 16 - like in Singapore. Mr. Soman suggests that the solution may be to re-look the age for consensual consent to having sex.
He elaborated: “Let’s not make it an offence for somebody who dates the girl to have sex with her. But if the man is more than four years older then her, then it will still be an offence.”
At the end of the day - as clichéd as it sounds - family education in the early stages of a teen’s life is still the most effective way to teach him or her about sex and life values. The key is to help them make right life choices from the start, instead of waiting for them to make a mistake and then criminalising them.
2 comments:
Damsels in distress - or are they? Under-age sex
Ong Dai Lin, TODAY
12 October 2009
It takes two hands to clap; why just penalise the man?
She was just 15 years old when she became pregnant in 2007, and made a police report alleging she had been raped by her 20-year-old boyfriend.
But police investigations revealed the teenage girl had been sexually active since August 2006, and has had sex with two other men, aged 19 and 22 years old, after chatting with them online.
In April this year, all three men were convicted for having sex with a minor, and were fined $3,000 each, although the district judge noted that the sex was consensual in all the cases.
Like many other cases of sexual offences involving minors, it was not disclosed if the girl was punished for her part in the offence - but the likelihood is that she would have got off scot-free.
Lawyers tell MediaCorp that girls involved in under-age sex cases are not charged or punished even if they had initiated the sexual relationship.
Said lawyer Chia Boon Teck: “There is little sympathy for the man no matter how proactive the girl was in wanting sex.
“The onus is on the man to make sure the girl is above age.”
In an age when more teenagers below the legal age of 16 for consensual sex are having sex - sometimes with the under-aged girl initiating the act - are we indulging the girls by absolving them of responsibility for their actions?
Counsellors say that in cases where it is clear the girl is a willing party or even initiated the sex, they should bear part of the responsibility.
Some 310 girls under 16 were caught last year for engaging in consensual sex- a 44 per cent increase from 216 in 2007. In the first half of this year alone, the police recorded 37 cases of statutory rape involving minors below 14 who had consensual sex, up from 21 in the same period last year.
Mrs Chong Cheh Hoon, senior vice-president of Focus On The Family, said: “Research has shown that for any juvenile crimes or sexual promiscuous behaviour, the chance of re-offence is higher when there is no or minimum therapeutic or intervening actions.”
Perhaps the courts can impose a probation sentence on the girls or pack them off to a home.
But that may be too harsh since the girl has technically not committed an offence and is classified as a victim.
The way forward may be to send the girls for mandatory counselling to learn values like self-respect and responsibility, say counsellors.
But with resources an issue, it may not be easy to implement such a system.
Said Mr. Noel Tan, co-founder of Sanctuary House which provides crisis pregnancy services and specialised family-education programmes, said: “We can get counselling centres to help these girls but the challenge is the extra work on the staff.”
There is also the battle to get families to support the girls and make sure they turn up for counselling sessions - a challenge especially in cases where the parents take a hands-off parenting approach.
But perhaps a bigger worry is that if the courts were to penalise the girl, the number of under-age sex cases reported to the police may drop significantly.
“Why would a girl stand out when she knows she will be punished and has to bear the stigma of having her sexual affairs exposed?” asked lawyer Premchand Soman.
In South Korea and Spain, the legal age of consent for sex is 13; for China and Italy, it is 14 - while for countries like India, the United Kingdom and the United States, it is 16 - like in Singapore. Mr. Soman suggests that the solution may be to re-look the age for consensual consent to having sex.
He elaborated: “Let’s not make it an offence for somebody who dates the girl to have sex with her. But if the man is more than four years older then her, then it will still be an offence.”
At the end of the day - as clichéd as it sounds - family education in the early stages of a teen’s life is still the most effective way to teach him or her about sex and life values. The key is to help them make right life choices from the start, instead of waiting for them to make a mistake and then criminalising them.
Post a Comment