{"id":4496,"date":"2010-10-22T09:21:20","date_gmt":"2010-10-22T13:21:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/?p=4496"},"modified":"2010-11-03T08:09:06","modified_gmt":"2010-11-03T12:09:06","slug":"hold-parents-responsible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/?p=4496","title":{"rendered":"Hold parents responsible"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Sean Douglas
\nOctober 22, 2010 – newsday.co.tt<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n

Violence<\/a>THE Rape Crisis Society yesterday called on Government to pass laws to hold parents responsible for sexual offences done by their children. \u201cSome of the perpetrators of these heinous sexual assaults are teenagers and thus are not liable for prosecution.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Society wrote to media houses to support the Evidence (Amendment) Bill 2010, under debate in the Senate, which makes it easier for victims of sexual abuse to testify in law-courts.
\n
\nWhile the Bill stops a rape-defendant from challenging a rape victim for her late reporting or non-reporting of the offence to a sympathetic ear ahead of her police-complaint, the Society wants to see no statute of limitations for sexual offences. The Society revealed that most cases of incest, child sexual abuse and rape are committed by close acquaintances (including family members) of the victim. \u201cIn our 2009 Annual Report, acquaintances ranked first on our listing of perpetrators of incest and child sexual abuse (11 perpetrators),\u201d said the Society. \u201cThe statistical data of rape cases of that same year revealed acquaintance rape ranked the highest, with 23 persons attending counselling\u201d.<\/p>\n

To further explain, the Society cited their 2008 Annual Report. \u201cThe degrees of relationship proximity between the perpetrator and the victim can influence the frequency and duration of sexual abuse. Close relationships are likely to involve frequent sexual encounters extending over a longer period of time.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 2008 report lamented that in such situations, the victim may also suffer emotional\/psychological abuse as well as physical abuse as the perpetrator tries to reduce the likelihood of disclosure by the child.<\/p>\n

The Society said rape violates not only a victim\u2019s body but also her psychological and emotional well-being. \u201cIt sometimes takes years for some survivors to face up to this ordeal,\u201d said the statement.<\/p>\n

Surviving rape requires courage, determination and personal strength. \u201cTime is also very important because the process of healing is just that \u2014 a process.\u201d The Society said rape affects everyone, not just the survivor. \u201cThe family unit is forced to face an unbelievable and unnecessary level of stress,\u201d said the statement. \u201cThe mental and physical health of the survivor must be looked after because there is always the possibility of becoming infected with sexually transmitted infections including HIV.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Society suggestions measures to counter rape. \u201cIt is important to establish the legal framework for dealing with the rapist but equally important that Health and Family Life Education be introduced in all educational institutions.<\/p>\n

The Society would like to recommend that all survivors of rape, incest and child sexual abuse be offered counselling and the benefits explained in detail.\u201d On Wednesday, six boys aged 15 to 16, were each granted bail of $85,000 for the alleged gang-rape of a 12 year-old girl from their secondary school.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.newsday.co.tt\/news\/0,129534.html<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Sean Douglas October 22, 2010 – newsday.co.tt THE Rape Crisis Society yesterday called on Government to pass laws to hold parents responsible for sexual offences done by their children. \u201cSome of the perpetrators of these heinous sexual assaults are teenagers and thus are not liable for prosecution.\u201d The Society wrote to media houses to … Continue reading Hold parents responsible<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,1,186,178,7,323,25,8],"tags":[85,44,96,397,49],"class_list":["post-4496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-crime","category-general-tt","category-law","category-media","category-politics","category-sex-general-tt","category-sex-crimes","category-violence","tag-abuse","tag-crime-in-tt","tag-rape","tag-sean-douglas","tag-tt-govt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4496","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4496"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4496\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4558,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4496\/revisions\/4558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}