Peter Espeut | The values we abide by

I am sure that most Jamaicans are appalled at the rape and murder of a little 10-year-old girl – Shani Coke – in Troy, Trelawny, on July 21. The alleged perpetrator is a convicted sex offender who had previously been arrested for buggery in Portland in 2014, sexual touching of a child in Trelawny in 2017, and another buggery offence in Trelawny in 2019. He served five years at the St Catherine Adult Correctional Centre for the 2019 conviction before being released in August 2025. No one saw him commit the offence, but a mob applied jungle justice and he was chopped to death the same day.

I don’t at all approve of jungle justice; but clearly there are some who don’t approve of child sex abuse.

Eleven-year-old Ananda Dean went missing on September 17, 2008. She was last seen leaving her school in Whitehall, St. Andrew. Her body was found less than two weeks later. Ananda Dean – only 11 years old – had been raped and murdered. No one has yet been charged.

These are not isolated cases. I am sure readers can recall other cases that triggered public outrage at the time.

What kind of animal in heat would force a little girl to have sexual intercourse? Not even dogs and donkeys (jackasses) do that. Clearly there are many men – and many women (judging by the ongoing popularity of the oldest profession) – who completely disconnect sex from love. Some have not made the leap from animal to human.

What values and attitudes concerning sexual intercourse does public policy advocate? Or is that topic too close to home?

And what about sex with children? I understand the government is about to decriminalize “consensual” sex between children, as if the “age of consent” is a meaningless concept. There is a short step between that and children “consenting” to sex with adults.

We are going to have a lot more 22-year-old grandmothers!

In 2008, the Kingston and St Andrew Corporation erected a monument in a small green space on the corner of Church Street and Tower Street (for some reason called “The Secret Gardens”) in memory of Jamaican children who have died violently. Engraved on the monument are the names, ages, and dates of death of more than 2,000 children murdered since 2004. Ananda Dean’s name is inscribed there.

But the monument ran out of space in 2017, in less than a decade. Is anyone bothered at the rate at which brutes are murdering our children?

The Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Corporation (KSAMC) has announced plans to expand the monument by adding a wall to be able to accommodate more names. I imagine even that wall will soon be filled up, and more space will be needed. Where will it all end?

On November 14, 2024, the Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ) released the results of a 2023 Violence Against Children and Youth Survey (VACS). It was a nationally representative household survey that measured physical, emotional and sexual violence experienced by children and youth, ages 13 to 24.

The survey revealed that sexual violence in childhood is common and that girls are more vulnerable. Almost one in four females or 23.7 per cent, and over one in 10 males or 11.7 per cent, experienced sexual violence during childhood.

This is at the level of an epidemic!

According to the Child Protection and Family Services Agency (CPFSA), there were some 43,312 reported incidents of child abuse in Jamaica over the 24-month period between January 2019 and December 2020, with an average 60 reports being made daily. Assuming an eight-hour working day, that is an average of more than seven cases of child abuse reported per hour!

The Economic and Social Survey of Jamaica (ESSJ) 2025, published by the PIOJ, which was tabled in Parliament on June 30 last, shows that the National Children’s Registry (NCR) received 14,602 reports in 2025, compared with 13,918 reports in 2024 – down from 2020, but a five per cent increase between 2024 and 2025. For 2025, there was an average of over 280 reports of child abuse per week.

And these are just the reported cases. The ESSJ 2025 notes that the number of abuse incidents recorded was more than double the number of reports, with 31,591 incidents documented in 2025.

Is this level of child abuse normal? Does Jamaica have a sex abuse problem that spills over into child sex abuse? Does Jamaica have a parenting problem?

I think the problem starts with a lack of clarity about which values we wish to operate in our culture, especially in the area of sexuality. Parents and teachers are not credible when they advocate sexual mores they are not prepared to themselves adhere to. Children have eyes and ears.

Some leaders preach honesty, but fight the Integrity Commission. We also need to agree on the values which must guide public affairs.

I am not here making an argument for religious-based ethics. The discipline of ethics within secular philosophy predates Christianity and Islam, and promotes behaviour that builds strong and healthy individuals in strong societies and economies. Modern philosophies around individualism and personal freedom lead to societal breakdown.

Social media and modern liberalism promotes sexual licence, especially for women, with contraception and abortion provided to avoid the natural biological consequences. Will this suite of values take us where we want to go as a society? We need public discussion on these issues.

Once we agree on the values we wish to promote, the next step is enforcement. We can’t seem to enforce anything, even the wearing of helmets by motorcyclists, the detection of which requires only good eyesight.

But I think we all agree that we want an end to violence against children, particularly sexual violence. I wish to encourage discussion around what suite of values needs to be promoted to make violence reduction in this area a reality.

Peter Espeut is a sociologist and development scientist. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com