Definition Of Rape In Jamaica

Rape is not a new phenomenon. Recorded in the Bible in 2 Samuel 13 is the story of Tamar’s rape by her own brother, Ammon. Rape has been defined from as far back as 1750BC in The Code of Hammurabi, one of the earliest written laws of human civilization (Eriksson, 2011). However, there is no overarching definition for rape as there is for other crimes such as human trafficking which is defined in the 2000 Palermo Protocol. Therefore, rape is largely defined by the nation state. Definition from the United States in addition to that of Jamaica will be provided as mostly statistics from both countries will be used for analysis.

The US Justice Department defines rape as “forced sexual intercourse, including vaginal, anal, or oral penetration” (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network, n.d., para. 2.). Penetration means by any body part or an object. According to the Sexual Offences Act (of Jamaica) (2009), “a man commits the offence of rape if he has sexual intercourse with a woman, without the woman's consent…” (s. 3(a), (b)). Furthermore, the act describes grievous sexual assault in a similar way as it had described rape. Thus, sexual assault will also be used throughout the paper as statistics were sometimes reported as both rape and sexual assault.

The definition of adolescence is well debated in the literature as it can be approached not only from a chronological age perspective but also from a physical, social and cognitive perspective. However, for the purpose of this paper, so as to more easily utilize statistics and engage in analysis, adolescents will be defined as “youth ages 10 to 18” (American Psychological Association, 2002, p. 1).

Prevalence of Adolescence rape

According to Clement, Spec, Crane and Faulkner (200...

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... to promiscuous behaviour, suicidal thoughts, negative change in self-perception and interpersonal skills. The severity of symptoms largely depends on length and time of interventions and presence of either positive or negative support groups.

Intervention must take place in order for rape survivors to be able to deal with incident. There are four issues that the counsellor must take into consideration as a part of intervention, what the victim’s response to rape is and in what sociocultural context, history of victimization, the nature of the assault and self-blame. These are addressed through psychoeducation, exposure therapy, cognitive therapy and anxiety management. Since there is an extremely low percentage of reported cases of rape in Jamaica, intervention method should be employed in schools both as a prevention method and also to increase disclosure.