Sexual violence is a general term that includes any sexual activity inflicted or forced upon a person without his/her consent. In all cases, the victim would not rationally or willingly choose to participate in the activity or the person is unable to give valid consent due to physical, mental or age constraints. Sexual violence encompasses crimes such as child sexual abuse, sexual assault from intimate partners, or friends, dates, or from strangers; incest, sexual harassment, stalking, elder abuse, and rape among some of its categories. A key factor in determining whether a sexual act is deemed “violent” or “abusive” lies in the individual’s ability to give valid consent.
So, what is consent? Legally, consent refers to the minimum age at which an individual is considered to be old enough to understand the nature of sexual activities and to participate in them. Full Article
Their cognitive abilities have not yet reached completion they say. Well we all know the brain doesn’t fully develop in men until about age 25, and for women it’s somewhere around the age of 21. Is that what the author is advocating for here? I’m willing to hazard a guess that she is. This is anti social garbage.
The convenient assumption of the busybodies is that late development of the prefrontal cortex is a reason to shield adolescents from adult society. Now, researchers such as Stanford’s Robert Sapolsky believe that that lack of development is an important feature – not a shortcoming – in shaping the adolescent through experience and interaction with the world. It is a means of fitting in lots of important real-world experiences BEFORE the brain has assumed its final form and therefore improve his or her adaptation to the environment, broadly defined. This process of maturation can be seen as an epigenetic opportunity to… Read more »
“So, what is consent? Legally, consent refers to the minimum age at which an individual is considered to be old enough to understand the nature of sexual activities and to participate in them.” This goes 100% against psychologists and scientists that have CLEARLY stated that adolescents, you know ‘Children’ according to law, are FULLY aware of logical reasoning. The only difference is that their hormones dictate more of their actions than someone of a higher age. Thus, it isn’t automatic Rape, such as the morons in the court system would have you believe. It isn’t a binary thing, it’s a… Read more »
A number of jurisdictions are considering moving the voting age down to 16. So they’re children when it comes to sex, drinking, smoking, and serving in the military, but when it comes to voting they’re sufficiently developed to make a rational choice? I guess being able to get a driver’s license is the sole qualification for voting, but for nothing else.
^ This is a PRIME example of why these laws are utter BS. A ‘child’ commits an act of violence/crime and they are considered a ‘juvenile’ who should be punished, yet the same individual doesn’t know what they’re doing when it comes to Sex? Lol. The bullshit is absolutely unreal.
From the article:
“Research demonstrates that false claims of sexual assault are very low, between 2 and 7 percent.”
So between 2-7% of accusations being false is considered “very low,” but 3-5% of recidivism among registrants is “frightening and high”?