14.SEP.07

Editor: A news report in recent circulation throughout the region quotes a United Nations/World Bank Study as stating that the Caribbean has three of the top 10 recorded rape rates in the world. Bahamas, Jamaica and St. Vincent and the Grenadines have been named as these three countries.{{more}} Whether or not the comparative data are correct, the fact remains that St. Vincent and the Grenadines has a real social/criminal problem regarding the reported cases of sexual offences. The data will show that this is not a party political issue, but a national one, which we all, including the news media and television, must address cogently, firmly and responsibly.

The statistics for sexual offences, including rape, for the period 1997 to August 31, 2007, are as follows:

It will be noted that the lowest incidence of rapes and other sexual offences between 1999 and 2006, inclusive, is the year 2002. The numbers slide up and down. Last year (2006), the figures overall were, comparatively, moderate. At the end of August 2007, the number of reported rapes stands at 35 or 4.36 per month. On an annualised basis, the figure of reported rapes for 2007, all things being the same, will be 52. This would be below the numbers for 1999, 2003, 2004 and 2005.

A lot of policy and judicial effort goes into curbing rape and other sexual offences. These offences, however, have impulses resident in the society as a whole. This issue, thus, is not simply a narrow policing or legal matter; it is more complex. Accordingly, our homes, schools, churches, per groups, civil society, the news media, government, the police and law courts, must be part of an overall solution, for the eradication of these awful sexual offences.

Sincerely yours,

Elson Crick
Communications Officer
Office of the Prime Minister