Source: discover.hubpages.com 6/4/23
1. Introduction
When I moved from New York to California so many years ago, what really bewildered me was when I discovered that under their statutory-age-of-consent laws at the time, a 14-year-old boy could have been charged with statutory rape for having consensual relations with a 17-year-old girl. I had never heard of such a thing. I had thought that in those kinds of criminal cases, the perpetrator was always supposed to be older than the victim.
In a situation wherein a boy that young had been charged with a crime for having a rendezvous with a girl three years his senior, the boy’s parents would have become appalled with the criminal justice system; and they would be wanting to know why the girl wasn’t charged with a crime instead. In figurative words, fireworks would be going off everywhere to seek justice for this young boy.
It is difficult enough when a mother first finds out that her 14-year-old son is no longer a virgin. However, could you even imagine how that mother would feel if her 14-year-old son were arrested for having sexual relations with the older girl who took her son’s virginity? There would be picketers surrounding the courthouse where the boy would be scheduled to stand trial.
For this reason, we, as Americans, need to come to an awareness that statutory rape is nothing more than a legal construct rather an actual act of sexual brutality. I would not doubt that California has changed these laws since then. However, it is not to say that archaic sex laws like these still exist elsewhere in the United States. In any event, it gives us all additional reasons to question the fairness of sex-offender registration.
Recently I had gotten wind that Governor Ron DeSantis had been pushing a bill through his state legislature to seek out a law that would allow for the state of Florida to execute individuals for sexually-based offenses. After hearing about it, I discounted it as gossip inasmuch as I had remembered reading about a ruling in the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) that prohibited any American court from imposing the death sentence against anyone whose crime didn’t cause the loss of human life.
How the h#ll can a 14 year old boy be charged for having consensual s$x with a 17 year old girl?!”
What the heck? No force, no nothing and can still be charged? Am I missing something here. I don’t even know if any 14 year old boy would even know he can be charged for something like that.
I just don’t get it?!
This is an excellent (rather long) read! @NDIK, @Ed C @M C et al have all of late touched on topics herein and should read this as all other forum participants should as well. @FAC should get a copy of it too and post on their website.
I will leave this summary paragraph for you to entice a read, grab a beverage of your choice and maybe a snack too: “Nevertheless, the United States continues to become less and less of a democracy and more and more like a police state because of more and more Draconian sex laws that appear on law books regularly.”
This article is all over the place. I just had to stop reading it.
Excellent and comprehensive article. Yes, very long but worth the read. I did not watch any of the videos but without that still a great piece. If only more Americans and legilators were capable of conversation and open minds. And also this idea that it is always the man’s fault according to society is so true and so wrong. People don’t care to understand just how many women will be happy to get a guy in trouble and play victim. And if a they are younger and don’t want to get in any trouble for sure they will do what they have to, to stay out of trouble. I say this as a woman, woman and girls are not all that nice. Both sexes could use some improvement when it comes to a yes or a no with sexual relationships.