12-year-olds have sex with adults: study

Increasing the legal age of sexual consent does not protect youth most at risk, as children 12 years old and younger have reported sexual experiences with adults, new British Columbia-based research suggests.

In the first study of its kind in Canada, University of British Columbia and Simon Fraser University researchers studied data of more than 29,000 students between Grade 7 and Grade 12 and found that some respondents had sex before they were 12 with partners who were at least 20 years old.

“The law was changed to protect 14 and 15 year olds from adult sexual predators. But it turns out they’re not the ones at greatest risk,” said lead investigator Bonnie Miller. “We found children under 13, already protected by the existing law, were the ones most likely to report first sex with adults age 20 years or older.”

Her team’s findings were published on Tuesday in the Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality.

Legal age of consent increased in 2008 to 16 years old from 14 to protect younger teenagers. But the study shows the change clearly isn’t helping children, said Elizabeth Saewyc, a UBC professor.

She said Canadians need to work on preventing the sexual abuse children and teens are facing, first by making sure youth understand they need to tell a family member or guardian if they encounter sexual abuse.

OTTAWA — The Harper government’s emphasis on cracking down on crime will inevitably be “tough on taxpayers” and may also be “lazy on crime,” says a new report.

The report provides a scathing analysis of the Conservatives’ “tough on crime” agenda that, it says, is motivated by politics as opposed to a desire to pursue sound policy based on the facts.

The study was released Wednesday by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, a left-of-centre think-tank.

Author Paula Mallea, a criminal lawyer and research associate at the centre, says the government has used charged rhetoric and misinformation to advance a crime-and-punishment agenda that, she argues, may lead to more crime and cost taxpayers billions of dollars to house more prisoners.

“Tough on crime is actually lazy on crime. It certainly is tough on taxpayers,” Ms. Mallea wrote.

The report draws on academic studies, Statistics Canada numbers and a report by the parliamentary budget officer that says taxpayers will have to fork out $5 billion to finance one of the government’s new prison sentencing laws, which will require 13 new prisons.

Kevin Page said it will cost $1 billion a year for five years to implement the law that ended the practice of judges handing offenders time credits, on a two-for-one basis, to compensate for time spent in pre-sentence custody.

Public Safety Minister Vic Toews has disputed Mr. Page’s figures and put the cost at closer to $2 billion. Mr. Toews has refused to put a price tag on the total cost of the “tough on crime” agenda.

“The Conservative approach to crime will cost billions and will probably produce less rather than more public safety,” Ms. Mallea wrote.

Longer sentences, harsher prison conditions and incarcerating more people will spur more violence within prisons, and also increase the possibility of prisoners offending again after being released.

“Recidivism is more likely to occur when offenders have been locked away for long periods with few programs of rehabilitation,” she said.

The report says the Harper government has stoked public fear with its heated references to the war on “drugs, gangs and guns,” while ignoring its own statistics from Public Safety Canada that show police-reported crime rate has been deceasing since 1991.

For example, Ms. Mallea says, Public Safety statistics say the use of guns in robberies declined to 15 per cent in 2009 from 20 per cent in 1999; that violent crime decreased by 14% to a rate of 932 per 100,000 in 2008, the lowest rate since 1989; that the rate of reported sexual assault has been declining since its peak in 1993; and that drug offences are showing a downward trend.

Ms. Mallea says the sheer volume of crime legislation since the Conservatives won power seems designed to suggest “crime in Canada is out of control” and the government needs to dedicate a large portion of taxpayers’ money to the cause.

The government has produced 54 bills in the current parliamentary session, of which 33% — or 18 — are related to crime, the report says.

“Canadians have the right to expect public policy to be developed based upon expertise, hard evidence, and solid statistics, not upon the fiery rhetoric of individuals who are clearly misreading the facts,” Ms. Mallea concludes.