Letter of the Day | The killing of this nine-year-old child is an alarm
Published:Wednesday | May 14, 2025 | 12:06 AM
THE EDITOR, Madam:
The latest horrific rape and murder of a nine-year-old child left Jamaica reeling in outrage and collective mourning. As the public cries out for justice, let’s confront some uncomfortable realities: this brutality is no aberration. This is the result of the systemic breakdown in protecting children from sexual violence, a crisis fuelled by political machismo, (limited) information and a culture of silence. Whereas Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness’s quick condemnation of the offence is to be lauded, there has been a decade of silent suffering
In the last 10 years, Jamaica has not been able to measure the extent of sexual abuse of children. Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) reports indicate that offences like carnal abuse (intercourse with children under age 16) reach in the hundreds every year. For example, in 2021, there were 1,349 reported cases of carnal abuse. Such numbers are deceptively limited. They do not include:
1. The under-reporting: UNICEF and local NGOs estimate the percentage of child sexual abuse that is not reported, due to stigma, fear of retaliation, or distrust of authorities, at possibly 70 per cent.
2. The misclassification: Crimes by children are typically listed under broad categories like ‘sexual assault’ or ‘homicide’, with no suggestion of the special vulnerability of children.
3. Deaths: Sexual violence resulting in deaths are rarely counted. When a child’s life is brutally cut short, his or her case is being included as a homicide statistic, erasing the sexual violence that led to it.
FOCUS ON ‘QUICK JUSTICE’
This is not only a bureaucratic gap in information, it is a moral one. How do we address a crisis that we won’t even measure?
It does nothing to deal with the causes of sexual violence: poverty, toxic masculinity, poor child protection systems, and the normalisation of abuse within communities.Worse still, it can reinforce cycles of violence. Evidence repeatedly demonstrate that severe punitive measures, in the absence of complementary social investments, do not deter crime. For instance, a 2022 study by the Caribbean Policy Research Institute mentioned that societies with good social programmes had lower rates of child violence. Yet, Jamaica’s Child Protection and Family Services Agency (CPFSA) remains under-budgeted perennially, and reports of caseworkers with too much caseload persist.
The prime minister’s focus on “quick justice” also overlooks Jamaica’s glacial justice system. Cases linger for years, re-traumatising victims and deterring others from reporting. In 2020, the Office of the Children’s Advocate reported that only 12 per cent of child sexual abuse cases result in convictions. Where is the urgency to fix courts, train police in trauma-focused interviewing, or provide legal aid to survivors?
Moreover, the deafening silence from the Government on taking preventative measures is an indictment in itself. Comprehensive sexual education programmes are
non-existent in schools. Mental counselling for victims of child abuse is nothing short of non-existent, except in large towns. And even though the Sexual Offences Act (2009) mandates a Sex Offender Registry, implementation is spotty.
Demanding More Than Platitudes
To honour this child and all those whose names we may never know, we need to demand systemic reform:
1. Open data collection: The JCF, in collaboration with CPFSA, must publish broken-down annual reports on youth crime, including deaths from sexual violence.
2. Prevention at the community level: Invest in community-based programmes to educate families to recognise abuse, empower children to voice their complaints, and engage men and boys to eradicate the rape culture.
3. Survivor-centred justice: Speed up courts for child abuse, specialised victim support units, and strict enforcement of the Sex Offender Registry.
4. Political accountability: Redirect funds from performative policies (e.g., debates on the death penalty) to under-resourced child protection agencies.
Prime Minister Holness has the platform to be the catalyst for this change. Will he go beyond empty threats and invest in long-term solutions? Or will we have another decade of headlines grieving Jamaica’s children, while neglecting them?
The killing of this nine-year-old child is an alarm. Let us not press the snooze button with token gestures. Justice for her and for every child needs more than hangmen. It calls for a society bold enough to defend its weakest.
CUTEL FRANCIS