THE SONS OF Hermandad actually deserve a pat on the back. Through decisive action, the Suriname Police Force was able to track down and arrest a child molester, who had already tried to take young children twice in one day. This concerns a 68-year-old man who has served a long sentence in the United States of America for rape and molestation of a young child.
When such a person is released, he is listed in many cities in America in a database that the police and also citizens have (partial) access to. Then the community knows which people with a history of sexual violence are in the area. That community can also protect itself by, for example, not hiring such a person for a job that involves working with children. The police also know immediately where ex-convicts are staying and repeat offenders can be apprehended more easily. In America, staying after a prison sentence for sexual abuse poses enormous restrictions.
That is why catching this child molester through good police investigation is definitely worth a compliment.
This is not yet the case in Suriname. The child molester thought he might benefit from this. Proof of good conduct can demonstrate that someone has a conviction to his or her name. But the Surinamese police are not yet able to proactively monitor these people. That is why catching this child molester through good police investigation is definitely worth a compliment.
Yet we urgently need to look at our own system and find out how we can better protect our children in a structural manner. The 68-year-old child molester who was arrested has been identified as such, but 23-year-old FS, who was arrested on Friday for elopement, actual sexual assault and sex with a minor, is not being portrayed as a child molester or pedophile — while the girl is 12 years old!
Even when young girls become pregnant and are sometimes not even fourteen years old, the men who impregnate them are not portrayed as child molesters. We also don’t seem to use the word pedophile easily in Suriname when older men hook younger girls or enter into a ‘relationship’ with them. When a police case arises, we often see the question from the public: ‘But did that child give rise to this?’ come by.
A more ridiculous question is hardly conceivable: a child cannot possibly consciously give a reason, because he or she cannot foresee the consequences of his or her own behavior. That is why there is a difference between adults and children in criminal law, and sex with a child under the age of sixteen is not permitted. Yet we see young mothers who are sometimes far below that age, and older fathers who walk around freely.
Our children deserve a better and consistent approach to sexual violence committed against them and a good system that makes these perpetrators visible – even if it is only accessible to the police.
