Dear Editor: The proposed new law criminalizing adult males having sex with girls 16-18yrs instead of just those under 16 is a good law. It is NOT, “Dumb, Lop-sided and Draconian” as perceived in a piece in your paper last week by Mr. Archibald, whose views are always interestingly posited and often” correct. But to quote Sparrow, “Not this time”. Part of the reason our society accepts adult males having sex with little girls as being “OK”, is because we see it happening every day so” our eyes and minds have become numbed to this wrong. Unless it is done to our daughter or sister. There can be NO justification for a man of more than 21 years having sex with girls under 18,” no matter how provocative they may appear. Surely he can find enough prey between 18 and 21, if he really likes them young. Further, Mr. Archibald’s piece would have us believe that there are a lot of 18-21-year-old men having sex with girls under the age of 18. This does occur, but the law is mostly NOT an ass, and hopefully would not apply full sanctions to those 18-21-year-old males who infringe it with girls 16-18. If this proviso needs to be written into the law, it should. But in the overwhelming number of cases of adult males having sex with girls less than 18, the males are over 25, and sometimes way over 30. These are the men who will hopefully feel the full weight of the proposed law, regardless of how provocative and tempting the under 18 yr old girl was. Students of history will know that many of our attitudes to men having sex with girls have their roots in our history of slavery, when white men used and abused our women and girls as they pleased. We accepted it then, and continue to accept such behavior in our our own males. But, if it would be wrong if done to one of our own, it must be wrong!! The young girls who buy into this notion and sell their bodies to older men for their pleasure are misguided and often corrupted by society’s low norms in this area, and by the so-called hapless victims who have no choice but to take advantage of these sex-hungry and sexy girls. The new law will not stop the practice, but rightly signals that society finds it reprehensible, and allows for the appropriate sanctions to be visited on the abusers. For that is what they are. So, “Mek dem show you dey birth certificate!!” Ian Jacobs , St. Peters
