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The government should carefully reconsider its proposal to impose the mandatory death penalty on child rapistsMedia Statement by Teresa Kok (Petaling Jaya, Wednesday): DAP Women urges the government to reconsider its proposal to impose the mandatory death penalty on child rapists in line with the stand taken by a group of 30 non-governmental organizations on the issue recently. The various organisations, which deal with sexual assault, rape, child sexual abuse, violence and human rights, had in a joint press statement entitled “Proposed Mandatory Death Penalty for Child Rapists Not in the Child’s Best Interest” on 15th November 2002, urged the government to seriously reconsider the death penalty as the effectual solution to child rape.
Instead, these organisations – amongst which are prominent bodies such as Women’s Aid Organisation, Sisters in Islam, Women’s Development Collective, All Women’s Action Society and Amnesty International – advised the government to focus on providing real justice to the victims by ensuring that there is effective prosecution of the perpetrators that results in conviction.
One primary argument against enforcing the mandatory death sentence is that it may result in the perpetrators of child rape killing their child victim. This is the common scenario in countries which impose the death penalty for such crimes where child rapists ended up killing the rape victims so that there would not be any witness to testify against them.
Another reason why the mandatory death penalty should not be imposed on child rapists is because it may actually be counter-productive and discourage victims from coming forward to report incidences of rape. This is because the majority of such cases were committed by people whom the victims knew or were close to. Studies have further shown that the child victim would be placed under great emotional burden detrimental in effect if she were to know that the perpetrator of the crime would be punished by death.
Besides, it has yet to be proven that the mandatory death sentence can actually serve as an effective deterrent than other methods of punishment. Despite the death penalty for drug trafficking and murder, such cases still continue to occur – evidence that excessive punitive measures may not necessarily be the solution. Therefore, unless the root causes of child rape are also adequately addressed through a variety of means such as, for instance, greater emphasis on counseling, moral and religious conditioning and sex education, the problem will not be fully resolved.
While the outrage of the public is understandable considering the hideous nature of sex crimes involving children, we should not be too reactionary and overly hasty to jump on the bandwagon and support the imposition of the mandatory death sentence without first giving serious consideration to the many complex dynamics involved in cases of child rape and taking into account the best interest of the child and how justice would best be served.
The government should therefore reconsider the
mandatory death penalty proposal and give serious and circumspect
deliberation to the many issues involved as well as hold extensive
consultation with various groups to seek their views on the appropriate
punishment that should be meted out to child rapists. * Teresa Kok Suh Sim, DAP MP for Seputeh and DAP Women Secretary |