The Criminalised Generation, How Jamaica's Refusal to Modernise Its Sex Laws Is Destroying Young Lives, and What It Reveals About a Nation Afraid of Evidence

The Criminalised Generation, How Jamaica's Refusal to Modernise Its Sex Laws Is Destroying Young Lives, and What It Reveals About a Nation Afraid of Evidence
A young Jamaican student stands in the shadow of a legal system that cannot distinguish between a predator and a peer. Since 2017, the Law Reform Department has recommended a close-in-age exemption to Jamaica's Sexual Offences Act — a reform that remains unlegislated. Between 2020 and 2024, 129 children aged 12–17 were arrested for consensual sex with a person under 16 — the second most common offence for which children in that age group faced arrest. Illustration: The McEwan Index.