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egardless of whether it is with or without the consent of the child.<br />
The same applies to sex with certain cases of mental retardation:<br />
... carnal knowledge or .. unnatural carnal knowledge of an idiot, imbecile<br />
or a mental patient in or under the care of a mental hospital whether with<br />
or without the consent of that other person, in circumstance which prove that<br />
the accused knew at the time of the commission of the criminal offence that<br />
the other person has a mental incapacity...<br />
Anyone taking such undue advantage of the mentally retarded for sexually<br />
purposes commits a criminal offence and is liable on summary conviction<br />
to a term of imprisonment of not less than seven years and not<br />
more than twenty-five years. Ghanaian law thus takes a serious view of<br />
sexual violence. It goes on to define incest, another criminal offence in<br />
which violence of some kind often cannot be dismissed. Unlike rape,<br />
the law recognised that men and women of 16 years of age and above<br />
could be guilty of incest, if they had carnal knowledge of a close relative<br />
or permitted a close relative to have such knowledge of them.<br />
The Research Approach<br />
The information on which this paper is based was gathered through<br />
one-on-one interviews with youth (adults under 31 years), the middle<br />
aged (the 31-49-year bracket) and older persons (those above 50 years<br />
of age) and was through the medium of the Ga language. Sexual violence<br />
was just one of several issues discussed with respondents. The interviews<br />
were conducted between March and July 2010. The study<br />
communities included Jamestown — a community in the Accra business<br />
district, Pokuase — a fairly large town located on the Accra-Kumasi<br />
road, which has the features of a peri-urban centre fast developing<br />
urban characteristics, and the rural community of Papase, located several<br />
miles off the Accra-Kumasi trunk road. 1<br />
1<br />
The study was designed as a multi-country investigation of issues in family planning<br />
and reproductive health in the West African countries of Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mali<br />
and Senegal. Where possible comparable evidence from these other counties will be<br />
cited. Language competence and site-specific approaches limit the extent to which<br />
comparison can be made in this paper.<br />
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