Carnal knowledge laws under review

Police report two incidents of mothers taking their underage daughters into police after discovering they had sexual intercourse. In the first instance, the fifteen-year-old girl is now pregnant, and police are looking for the suspect. In the other case the girl was fourteen, and although her partner was only sixteen himself, he has been charged with carnal knowledge. Under the current laws of Belize, the sixteen-year-old boy, if convicted, could face a prison term of not less than five years. This afternoon, News 5 spoke with John Flowers of the National Committee for Families and Children about situations like this in which the other party is also a minor. He told us that both the N.C.F.C.–as an advisory body–and the Department of Human Services have been looking at this legislation for some time, and that the Family and Children’s Act and other laws on the books are currently being revised to rectify a number of discrepancies. He points out that the age of sexual consent is sixteen, yet the legal age for marriage is fourteen. The age of criminal responsibility is nine. The N.C.F.C. and Human Development Department are also looking at portions of the law, like this one, which also appear to have a built-in gender bias.