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The Statutory Rape - Pointless life ruiner?
Magus`
The fun has been DOUBLED!Registered User regular
The fun has been DOUBLED!Registered User regular
Ever since I've been familiar with the term, I've been annoyed by the concept of statutory rape. Now, obviously some line has to be drawn as it would be.. unwise to have a bunch of 13-year-olds running around with babies but I think the current way the law is enforced is BS.
First, let's draw some lines in the sand:
I am not talking about someone in their 30s having sex with someone who is 14. I won't argue about the 'wrongness' of this, but I will say this is not the point of this thread.
What I am talking about is the 18 year old who has sex with their SO of 16/17 (in the states where 18 is the age of consent).
A guy I know (obviously not going to give any info) was 'caught' having sex with his GF (who was 1 month under 18). The mom (highly religious, if it matters) had the police arrest him and he was prosecuted as a sex offender. He was convicted and is now serving 10 years in jail. Once he gets out he will forever be labeled as a sex offender.
This seems wrong to me. Now, if the mom wasn't a fan of the relationship then I feel it's her right to somehow prevent them from shacking up. I don't like it, but I do feel she can if she wanted to. However, getting cops involved in this seems wrong. What is very wrong is the fact that this sort of case is punishable with a large jail sentence AND being labeled a sex offender.
I have known girls who have been raped. I can't say I know what it's like but I know that comparing a 18 year old having 'relations' with a 17 year old with being forcibly penetrated is.. well it's sick. I consider it disrespectful to real rape victims.
So, what should we do? Decriminalize it in cases of close ages (after, let's say 16)? At the very least, lower jail sentences to something more reasonable like a month in jail and NOT put them on the sex offender list?
In closing, let me say that I think any sexual abuse is horrible. And I understand that people at a certain age don't understand what they're getting into and can use a guiding hand. While I don't see how it can be construed as such, this is not a thread to advocate allowing 'sexual freedom' (that's something else entirely and beyond the cope of this thread) but rather not ruining the lives of young people over people being uptight about teenage sex.
First, let's draw some lines in the sand:
I am not talking about someone in their 30s having sex with someone who is 14. I won't argue about the 'wrongness' of this, but I will say this is not the point of this thread.
What I am talking about is the 18 year old who has sex with their SO of 16/17 (in the states where 18 is the age of consent).
A guy I know (obviously not going to give any info) was 'caught' having sex with his GF (who was 1 month under 18). The mom (highly religious, if it matters) had the police arrest him and he was prosecuted as a sex offender. He was convicted and is now serving 10 years in jail. Once he gets out he will forever be labeled as a sex offender.
This seems wrong to me. Now, if the mom wasn't a fan of the relationship then I feel it's her right to somehow prevent them from shacking up. I don't like it, but I do feel she can if she wanted to. However, getting cops involved in this seems wrong. What is very wrong is the fact that this sort of case is punishable with a large jail sentence AND being labeled a sex offender.
I have known girls who have been raped. I can't say I know what it's like but I know that comparing a 18 year old having 'relations' with a 17 year old with being forcibly penetrated is.. well it's sick. I consider it disrespectful to real rape victims.
So, what should we do? Decriminalize it in cases of close ages (after, let's say 16)? At the very least, lower jail sentences to something more reasonable like a month in jail and NOT put them on the sex offender list?
In closing, let me say that I think any sexual abuse is horrible. And I understand that people at a certain age don't understand what they're getting into and can use a guiding hand. While I don't see how it can be construed as such, this is not a thread to advocate allowing 'sexual freedom' (that's something else entirely and beyond the cope of this thread) but rather not ruining the lives of young people over people being uptight about teenage sex.
Magus` on
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Seriously, wtf? O_o
On a happy note he's up for appeal and there is a pretty good chance he'll have his sentence reduced if it's remanded to court.
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Wow.
I think some American state's laws on sodomy probably deserve equal amounts of attention. Didn't some guy get 10 years because he got head off a (consenting) 16 year old or something silly? Whereas if he had had sex it would be far less? Not that I'm condoning exploiting younger people or anything, just people do mature sexually rather younger than 18...
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Wow. That must be a boring place. Kind of infringing on civil liberties too, I'd say.
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Best avoid prison though. Every shower will add years to your sentence. Don't drop that soap...
Is something like this actually enforced in US states?
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of course not
and yeah, its not fair that that kid got jailed, but those problems are easily solved by changing the way stat-rape laws are written - simply introducing a 'within-18-months-of-each-other-its-ok' kind of rule handles it completely. Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater.
Regarding statuatory rape, there's a defence (known as "The Young Man's Defence"), which applies if the girl is over 13, but under 16, which basically states that if the man is under the age of 24, and can demonstrate they genuinely and reasonably believed the girl to be over 16, he's off the hook. It only works if they have no previous convictions for sexual offences and have never used that defence before, though.
EDIT: I meant Scotland for the first thing, but "The Young Man's Defence" works UK-wide.
The issue your friend is having sucks, but your friend did something stupid. Was it 10 years stupid? Probably not.
You can murder a person and get half that.
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why the fuck would an 18 year old not get to sex it up with a 17 year old. Jesus
And to see him actually get jailtime for it?
what the hell
Good times..
Teenagers having sex is pretty stupid. It is indeed normal but also pretty stupid. I'm sure some of the teenagers on this forum are going to get really pissed off.
The problem with being 18 is that you have the body of an adult and the mind of a teenager. I don't think we should try and legislate people who make simple common mistakes out of society, because we'd all be fucked. As long as he was using a condom and it was with her consent I think the worst thing they should be able to do is make them take a sex-ed class together.
I approve whole-heartedly. Yet another example of a law that urgently needs some interpretation...
These people could be college freshmen.
You think they need Sex Ed?
I know 30 year olds that need Sex Ed... because they never fucking got it. College party goers still try the pull out and hope method of birth control, think that STD's can't possibly happen to them, and that having sex in a pool is a valid form of birth control.
Yes, if someone is having sex and they're under aged, they should be forced to take sex ed. Shit, I think it should be a required course in college as well.
Hell man, people who don't need it are vanishingly rare, even in places not plagued with Ab-only 'education'.
Im trying to give a fair punishment sort of like traffic school for someone who speeds. Of course, we could always stick with sending them to prison for 10 years and creating someone dependent on society handouts the rest of their lives.
Also, I'm agreeing with The Cat.
The problem isn't with stat. rape laws - it's with a prosecution system that's wasting taxpayer's money.
Tons of people have sex as teenagers and very few of them get totally fucked up by it. I didn't. None of my friends have. Tons of people I know from high school didn't. The stereotypical misogynistic douchebags or naive virgins or whatever that you're suggesting all teenagers inherently are, these qualities don't just go away magically in two years. They go away from experience. I knew some people in high school that I thought had no clue how to act around girls and would probably be without any kind of meaningful relationship for a long time, and by the last year they had actually figured out how to act. Sex happened! Oh no! They're not going to regret it for the rest of their lives.
I kind of get what you're trying to say, but you're making wayyyyy too large a generalisation.
I'm 17, girlfriend is also 17 and 2 months older than me. She has overprotective parents. Could this law result in bad shit happening to me?
Edit: guess I should add an actual opinion.
Like somebody else said, there needs to be a middle ground, personally 24 months is good. It is perfectly normal and not wrong at all for people within a year of each other to be doing things, as I know a few people who lost their virginity in 8th grade or 9th grade to people their age. They all regret it now and realize they were idiots, but back then it was normal.
or not
Your age/2 +7 = youngest age to date.
But yeah, 10 years is very wrong. Should people having sex with people within 2 years of age be given much lighter sentences, or should it not be illegal at all? If we made it just mildly illegal, should they be fined or something like that?
I'll be fine, just give me a minute, a man's got a limit, I can't get a life if my heart's not in it.
Whoa, whoa, whoa. Before I give anyone the wrong idea, I'm not claiming it originated on XKCD, I"m just say that is where I'm pulling it from.
Hehehe, XKCD slays me...
I'll be fine, just give me a minute, a man's got a limit, I can't get a life if my heart's not in it.
What pisses me off more though is i'll bet anyone here any amount of money that at least 1/3rd of the judges, lawmakers, lawyers, lobbyists and community leaders that support laws such as this had sex while they were youth wherein they or their partner could have been arrested and thrown in jail for years, only to come out on a permanent sex offender list. Their dreams of being important, successful, leading members of our society GONE. GONE. GONE. GONE. Once you're past your youth you have such a different view of it, you think you know what's best for people and all that jazz, but the fact of the matter is that many of these moral, successful, intelligent people would not be where they are today had they been caught.
No, instead a lot of them would have committed suicide. Others would have been murdered for their sex offender label. Others still would be working menial labor jobs with no education, as no collegiate institution or decent employer is going to take someone with that on their record. Never mind the fact they would have been able to change the lives of countless others due to their intelligence, drive, and virtues. No, it's much better to make them criminals, force them into a life of poverty and shame for their heinous crimes.
Sickening.
What, so it's not okay to defend our interests?
Horny teenagers are as valid a demographic as any.