  The electric quadrupole transition from the first 2+ state to the ground 0+
state in 16C is studied through measurement of the lifetime by a recoil shadow
method applied to inelastically scattered radioactive 16C nuclei. The measured
lifetime is 75 +- 23 ps, corresponding to a B(E2;2_1+ -> 0^+) value of 0.63 +-
0.19 e2fm4, or 0.26 +- 0.08 Weisskopf units. The transition strength is found
to be anomalously small compared to the empirically predicted value.
