There are debates on whether or not the laws for statutory rape are strict enough. The age of consensual sex varies from state to state. In some states the age of consent is 16 while others start at the age of 17. Though many of these teens may be physically ready to engage in sex, many of them are not mentally prepared. In their article, “Enforce Statutory Rape Laws to Curb Teen Sex”, Kathleen Sylvester and Jonathan O’Connell talk about relationships between 12, 13 and 14 year old girls and sexually mature men who are inherently unequal, often coercive and almost always damaging. Many of these girls find themselves engaging in sexual activities with much older men. Until stricter laws are put into place, as well as parents explaining these …show more content…
Often times these relationships go unnoticed until the young girl either becomes pregnant or gets diagnosed with a sexually transmitted disease. In her article, “Can Statutory Rape laws be effective in preventing adolescent Pregnancy”, Patricia Donavan, talks about how no state currently requires reproductive health care providers to gather and report information on the identity of sexual partners (unless they have reason to suspect a young woman had been abused). Many times, the young ladies fail to undergo testing in fear of revealing who gave them the disease. If she does, she won’t be honest to protect them. In some cultures, it is accepted, even encouraged for young girls to have relationships with older men. A family may promise their young daughter to a much older man, in part because he will help support their family …show more content…
Bill Hughley, Executive Director of the Rockdale Coalition for Children and Families, said “state wide statistics illustrate that high risk sexual behavior among teenagers is a growing problem as young teenagers begin to experiment with sex with people much older than them (Jones, par 4). Many of these teens are engaging in sex not realizing that if both partners are not within the same age bracket they could be committing a crime. There is an exception for teenagers convicted of statutory rape and child molestation included as part of so called “Romeo and Juliet Laws” teenagers as long as they are not more than four years apart-to be charged only with misdemeanors and they would not be requires to register as sex
If the governing body requested that I set up a give an account of statutory assault due to the developing number of underage young ladies who have been impregnated by grown-up men. Examines uncover that numerous high school pregnancies result from undertakings that underage young ladies have with more established men, with age crevices running from 7 to 10 years. For instance, the regular relationship arraigned in California includes a 13-year-old young lady and a 22-year-old male accomplice. Some insulted guardians resolvedly bolster a law that will give state stipends to provinces to indict statutory assault. These awards would permit more overwhelming implementation of the law and could bring about the conviction of more than 1,500 wrongdoers
Can we take a moment to think about how there are so many double standards when it comes to sex and I’m not just talking about the typical guys can have casual sex with multiple people and get praised for it but when a woman does it she gets slut-shamed? I’m talking about the double standards with statutory rape, for example, a 17-year-old boy was sentenced 10 years in prison for having consensual oral sex with a 15-year-old. I’m wondering so is the 15-year-old girl going to jail too? So let's start from the beginning statutory rape refers to having sexual relations under the age of consent which is different in states but typically is between the ages of 16-18 here in the US. Now statutory rape and child molester is not the same thing, statutory
Although there is the “Romeo and Juliet Law”, which is in place to prevent serious criminal charges against teenagers who engage in consensual sex with others close to their own age. In Florida, there is an exemption for consensual sex when the minor is 14-17 years old and the defendant is no more than four years older. If the defendant meets certain eligibility requirements, the law will remove the requirement of registering as a sex offender. The terms of imprisonment and fines may still be
The prosecution of statutory rape laws violations has led many to question the judicial proceedings for cases of non-violent underage sex. Some have wondered if current laws are used appropriately and do they effectively protect minor subjected to sexual
The perspective offered by such longitudinal data sheds remarkable light on the "problem" of statutory rape, identifying for us key markers, as well as key actors, in the history of the law's enforcement and helping us to understand their roles in constructing the meaning of this crime over successive generations. ... The statutory rape codes have been used at various times to reinforce fathers' interests in their daughters' marriageability, to protect young women's chastity from seductive men, to control promiscuous or disease-laden adolescent females, to enhance child support collection efforts, to reduce teenage pregnancy, and to identify and punish sexual exploitation of teenagers. ... Given the constant state of jockeying, compromise and
The accusation of statutory rape can insult both parties involved when the case is of a completely consensual & committed relationship. Since the year 2003 the legality is expected to be easily understood, if one person isn’t giving consent, with the capacity to do so, and the other involved does not think there’s consent, that is an offence. So when two people in a committed relationship are being punished for something that any other normal couple could do without such extreme consequences, is the statutory rape law really just?
As teens and young adults, many people throughout Pennsylvania experience love for the first time. If they decide to act on their feelings, however, what should be a special time and experience may result in serious criminal charges. Depending on a couple’s ages, getting intimate with a partner could be considered statutory sexual assault.
Martha Kempner, author of the article “What’s Wrong With Our Age of Consent Laws”, states “Age of consent laws is meant to protect young people from exploitation by adults, but in too many instances they send 18-year-old boys to jail for having consensual sex with their 15-year-old girlfriends. The boys then end up on sex offender registries for life along side rapists and pedophiles. Should we really be legislating teen sex?” There are also many inconsistencies amongst state to state regarding these laws, differing between ages 16 and 18 as the legal consent age, causes much confusion for couples in relationships, such as one Kempner stated, as well as the opportunity for the exploitation of 16 year olds by adults who live in states in which the laws have been lowered. Now the age of 25 for sexual consent laws, is likely too drastic, however we propose that there should be at least an equal age amongst all states, to eliminate any further unnecessary confusion, embarrassment, and
It’s time to separate the child sex offender from the children being accused of sex offending unreasonably. There are many stories of teenagers 15, 16, 17, just trying on young love for the first time. What should be happy memories can be turned to shame, and they don’t even have to have actual intercourse for it to be called a “sex offense.” Here are some examples of needed changes to our laws:
The statistical evidence of young female juveniles describes by journalist Linda Lowen. Lowen says young girls who were subjected to many different mental health issues and some form of abuse have often led to delinquent conduct. Abuse, such as, physical, mental, sexual, and emotional abuse is the most commonplace behind a juvenile’s girl’s negative behavior. In the United States, seventy-three percent of young girls have been abused. Just over forty percent of young girls have been victims of sexual assault or rape. Girls who have been abused or neglected are twice as likely to be arrested as other girls (Lowen, 2014).
On top of that, laws regarding Statutory Rape are different from one state to the next. “30 states currently consider 16 to be the age of consent; the remaining 20 states set it either at 17 or 18.” (Schwiegershausen “What You Should Know About Statutory-Rape Laws”). Some states allow the use of mistaken age or a small age gap (Romeo and Juliet Laws) as a defense against charges of Statutory Rape, and some states do not. This causes a lot of confusion as to what the laws are, especially for those moving from state to state a lot. Many people (minors especially) do not think it is an issue because if it’s consensual, why should age matter? The median age difference in Statutory Rape cases is 6 years. There are plenty of people who are married and have kids who are 6 or less years apart in age. Often because of this belief they do not take the time to research and discover the laws, and then they end up in a legal mess because it never occurred to them that consensual sexual activities would send one, or both, of them to prison. Those who understand Statutory Rape laws state that if it were truly consensual it wouldn’t be prosecuted, but there is a huge flaw in this line of thinking. If the law states that it is illegal to have sex with a person under the age of consent, and the law assumes that if it’s consensual it will not be brought to the court; that
Today, many kids don’t know how to deal with the trauma after they were raped because the subject is so taboo that they feel as if it was their fault due to the fact they were never told otherwise in a safe environment. Schools don’t talk about sex unless they are enforcing a strong message of abstinence. This leaves a lot of gray area for most teens today. Because of this, adolescents don’t know the line between consensual and non-consensual sex, who’s to blame in a situation like Melinda’s, and if it is okay to ask any questions about the subject. Kids who were raped and going through this struggle will start to find a way to blame themselves. Victims of sexual assault feel like they need to “confess everything [and] hand over the guilt and mistake and anger to someone else” (Anderson 51). Victims of rape shouldn’t
Rape is an extremely controversial issue and this notion is supported based on the fact that basic definitions and explanations of rape usually directly correlate with a state's lawful definition of rape. This proves problematic as many people's explanations and definitions of rape are quite different to that of the law. Social science theorists argue that rape is a learned action with which society plays a crucial role, Ellis (1989). Based on this theory it seems only logical to propose that there
You hear about girls having sex at a very young age more frequently nowadays. It’s almost the status quo to start having sex before you can even drive. You also hear about the young girls having sexual relationships with men much older than them, and in their state, the legal age of consent is only 16. This means that even if their parents don’t agree to that relationship, there isn’t too much they can do if their daughter legally consented. The age of consent should be raised to 18, which is the age of the national majority.
Even though people may think that teens are still children, but they are much maturer than we might imagine and can do things that people may never expect them to do. In a recent Broadly report (Kazdin, 2016), I read that on February 27, 2016, Marina Lonina, who was 18 at that time, live streamed her friend being raped by a 29-years-old man on Periscope app. She didn’t call the police and she claimed that she was doing it to stop the incident, but later was “caught up by the likes” so she couldn’t stop. Both the man and Lonina were charged of kidnapping, rape, sexual battery, and pandering sexually oriented matter involving a minor.