Between 2013 and 2018, a total of 22 women were arrested for having sexual intercourse with boys under 16 years old. At the same time, 129 boys under the age of 16 were the victims of sexual assault for the same period. In fact, according to data from the Jamaica Constabulary Force’s (JCF’s) Statistics and Information Management Unit, between 2013 and 2018 a total of 53 females were arrested for sexual assault, of which 33 were arrested for the offence of sexual intercourse with a victim under the age of 16.

Also, up to March 9 this year, one female has been arrested for having sexual intercourse with a male under 16 years old. The Jamaica Observer spoke with several adult men who recounted their first time having sex, most of whom did not consider their encounters as sexual abuse. According to one 30-year-old who is now the father of two children, he had sex for the first time at 12 years old with his aunt, who was babysitting him. “I didn’t know what was going on. It was just like, ‘Oh, anybody ever touched you there before?’ I said, ‘No’. She said: ‘Do you want me to?’. I said, ‘I don’t know’, and she did.(Jamaica Observer)…[+]