We agree with Women for Change (WfC) for suggesting a national debate to discuss more effective ways of curbing the rising cases of child defilement in Zambia.
We feel this bane calls for a speedy solution to protect lives of young girls who are now at the mercy of adults.
Going by the frequency of defilement cases being reported in the Zambian media, we feel that the proposition by the women’s rights body for the Judiciary to begin to hand down life sentence for defilers is welcome.
Like many other social problems in Zambia, child sexual abuse cases seem to be getting out of hand, despite the courts being fairly hard on perpetrators.
One reason for the cases going up, rather than diminishing in frequency, is that defilement cases present a number of complexities for affected families as well law enforcement authorities.
This is so because in the majority of cases, child sexual abuse is a very secret crime, and unless the victim can find the courage to tell someone about it, it can be hidden for a lifetime.
Worse still, in societies like Zambia, defilement carries with it a cultural and familial stigma that ‘tarnishes’ the name of a family.
The result is that many abusers get away with it because families are trying to protect the family’s honour at the expense of justice for the victim.
In cases where the matter does go through the legal process and the abuser is jailed, the victim is made to live with the guilt of having sent a family member to prison.
But as the WfC says, defilement is as egregious a crime as murder for the effect it has on the victim and draw we feel the punishment for both murderers and defilers should be harsh.
Zambians who are dismissing suggestions for life imprisonment for defilers should understand that some crimes are so heinous and inherently wrong that they demand the harshest possible penalties.
Studies of life imprisonment have reached various conclusions about its effectiveness in deterring crime.
In some countries, the return of the death penalty and life sentences has been associated with a drop in the number of grave crimes like murder and defilement.
Research has also shown a correlation between stiffening punishment and a drop in crime.
It is for this reason that we feel the suggestion by Women for Change (WfC) calling for a national debate to discuss more effective ways of curbing the rising cases of child defilement or effecting life sentences need loud support to safeguard the lives of young girls.