Published on: Thursday, May 20, 2004 |
Kuala Lumpur: The Prisons Department will hold whipping demonstrations in secondary schools from next month to create awareness among students on the harsh punishments meted out for serious offences like rape and drug trafficking.
Deputy Minister of Internal Security Datuk Noh Omar said the demonstrations would be staged in conjunction with the joint information sessions to be held by the department with the police to make students realise the severity of the countrys laws and punishments in efforts to reduce rising juvenile delinquency cases.
He said emphasis would be on rape cases during information briefings on law as many teenagers were not aware that having sex with an underage girl, even with her consent, could be convicted for rape, he told reporters at Parliament lobby.
Rape of under-18 girls, excluding murders, was high, especially in 2001 and 2002, with the age group accounting for more than 80 per cent of the overall rape cases reported, he said.
In 2001, 82.2 per cent or 1,140 of the 1,366 rape cases involved underage girls, he said.
In 2002, 80.5 per cent or 1,152 of the 1,431 rapes involved girls under-18, he said.
Last year, 988 of the 1,479 rapes or 66.8 per cent were girls in that age group and till April this year, 396 of the 560 or 70.7 per cent of the rape victims were underage girls, he said.
Of the 4,736 rapes reported between 2000 till now, more than half of the cases involved close friends (1,686), boyfriends (952) and new acquaintances (745) while cases involving unknown rapists were only 745, he said.
Noh said the Government had set up a special committee headed by Minister in the Prime Ministers Department Datuk Seri Radzi Sheikh Ahmad to study rape cases, including plans to impose harsher penalties, and to decide on the definition of rape.
In 2002, the Government reviewed the penalties for incest cases to be more deterrent, he said.
Earlier, Noh told the Dewan Rakyat that there were only 10 rape-murder cases involving victims under-16 between 2000 and May 12.
He said this when replying to Shim Paw Fatt (BN-Tawau) and Datuk Abdul Halim Abdul Rahman (PAS-Pengkalan Chepa). - Bernama
