02nd February 2012
Are Minors in Rape Cases getting the Care Needed?

The way in which persons in certain positions operate always irks me, sometimes to the point where I become furious.
I turn my attention to the Director of Public prosecution Mrs. Victoria Charles-Clarke and her concern over the high number of criminal cases in which persons are indicating that they do not wish to proceed with the prosecution. Her particular concern is in cases of sexual abuse of minors. In several of these cases, over the years, parents or guardians of the molested minors have shown a disinterest in prosecuting the case because of arrangements made with the perpetrators. In most, if not all those arrangements, money changes hands.
Several cases of rape involving minors and adults, especially minors have ‘disappeared’ from the courts as a result of such arrangements.
What Mrs. Clarke is now saying is that whether or not a parent or guardian or anyone for that matter takes money in exchange for their silence in a rape case, that case will not be dropped. The case will go forth.
The Director of Public Prosecution made it clear that such a practice is an offence under Section 371 and 373 of the Criminal Code of Saint Lucia 2004.
What I am furious at is this:
Why did it have to come down to a high number of requests made to her office for her to come out and so emphatically state that such a practice will no longer be tolerated. Some people may say better late than never but not me. A no-nonsense DPP should have made such an announcement soon after being appointed to the post. This means that rapists who should have been in jail are now enjoying life after paying their way out of a situation that they, by all accounts, should have been penalized for.
I now turn to the other side of the arrangement the DPP did not talk about in detail, namely the money that usually exchanged hands in these deals.
Now let us be very realistic here. As much as such the arrangement discussed above is outlawed by the law of the land isn’t it better for the minor that such an arrangement is made other than simply jailing the rapist?
Before all you bloggers bury me hear me out. I hope I am understood in what I am trying to say here.
Make no mistake a minor who is raped will not be the same person. That minor will be damaged physically, mentally, emotionally and could turn out to be quite problematic growing up if he/she is not given the professional care to counter the traumatic experience he/she has gone through. Such a care is expensive. Is the State willing to foot the bill in rehabilitating that minor? The DPP did not say anything in that regard.
Most of the cases of sexually molested minors that reach the police come from poor families. Those families do not have the money to pay for the professional help their child will require after such a harrowing experience.
The State has yet to make a statement that I am aware of that emphatically points to its ability to give free professional care to rape victims. I stand correct if such a facility exists. Someone may say what about the Crisis Center? I say what about it? As far as I am aware the Crisis Center is in need of experts that could deal with victims who have gone through such traumatic experiences. There is usually a short fall in the type of services organizations like the Crisis Center can deliver.