Letters to the Editor
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FYI
If an 18 year old boy comes near my 17 year old daughter the Florida statutes will be the least of his worries.
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In NC two years ago
A high school student (male) was convicted of a 4th degree felony sexual offense for snapping the bra of a female student. Both were minors. In NC you more or less get automatically prosecuted as an adult if you are 16 years old or more. The actual charge is up to the ADA regardless of what the accusation is. So - long story short: kid's live is effectively over. He is barred from living on campus in college, will be blocked from most forms of state financial aid, will be barred from most forms of employment, at least with national or large statewide firms that bother to check. Will be barred from living w/in a quartermile or so of any school and barred from any civil service job. If it were me, I'd go to KMart get a rifle and go out and kill a bunch of people. Just to make THEM an example of something.
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FYI
When I was 17, if my parents had come near my 18-year-old boyfriend, Florida statutes would have been the least of their worries.
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Was Romeo a sex offender?
Here in Utah, if she is 15 and he is 40 and they have sex, he'll be locked up and they'll throw away the key.
No explanation is necessary, such activities being sick and perverse, etc.
Of course, if the 40 year old man wants to marry the 15 year old girl, then circumstances change. It's no longer sick, perverse, etc. It then becomes perfectly legal and has the blessings of the same state that thought it a crime just a paragraph or two ago.
Clear?
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Crime versus Punishment
Criminal sex offender laws should be in place to protect young people from predatory intentions by older individuals looking to take advantage of age, inexperience, and immaturity.
There's a point where law needs to be strict. A college junior having sex with a high school freshman is predatory no matter how you look at it. But judges need to be allowed room to show discretion with others. Mandatory laws should not be in place for young people having sex across the statutory line. Judges need to be given room to determine if this was mutual or if it was predator in nature for whatever reason. Mandatory sentences take away the critical aspect of being able to examine cases on a case-by-case basis. They're a travesty. A 19-year-old having sex with a mature 15-year-old does *not* make him a sex offender who deserves to be monitored and shamed for life.
Over 90% of statutory rape cases are brought by the father of the girl against her will. What exactly is the issue there then? Daddy's mad because his little girl's purity was stolen...but it wasn't his to begin with, and she did it willingly. Ground your daughter into the next decade, get her therapy, and obviously ban that young man from coming near her. She's your kid and your responsibility. But that was not a criminal act, it was a moral and social one.
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diana s.
A mature 15-year old knows that the relationship is still being measured in weeks, maybe months, and that's just absolutely way too short to be OK with already having sex. So, your example begs the question, it doesn't prove a point. Please, people, get your heads out of your asses and let our children be children, and let adults keep to their own when dating. True love waits.
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diana s.
90% of internet statistics are 95% Bull Shit
--Yogi
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Hey FYI
So, if your daughter is a senior in high school and gets asked to the senior prom by another senior in her high school, but she is 17 and he is 18, this is a problem???? HOW STUPID!
I was 18 nearly my whole senior year, because my birthday was 6 days after the cut-off, and my mother was too lazy to argue for me getting an exception. We don't all magically become the next age at the start of the school year.
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There is Always More to the Story
I admit I know nothing about the bra-snapping teenager, or about any cases involving 19 year olds with 15 year olds. But I am certain of one thing: when there is what seems on its face to be a silly prosecution, there is always more to the story. I just don't buy it that a boy snapped a bra strap once and was prosecuted, for example. Think of the hurdles a case would have to overcome: the cooperation of law enforcement and prosecutors, the victim and then finally a judge. Too often, protests that a sex offender has been over-convicted leave out the other side of the story- as did the poster who brought up the bra strap snapper. What did the victim say that he did? How did the snapping come to the attention of the authorities? How many times was it alledged to have happened as opposed to how many times he was convicted of it? What was the offender's criminal history? How did the behavior affect the victim? Was he charged with anything more serious that was later reduced for a plea agreement?
I am in favor of laws that protect children from predatory adults. This may seem anti-traditional, since Juliet was only 14, but I think these laws have arisen out of a recognition that young teenagers are easily taken sexual advantage of by older people who know exactly what they are doing and proceed to ruin their lives. It also may seem prudish- but its not intended that way at all. I would like my daughter to develop her sexuality without the proverbial predatory older man we are all warned about over and over as young women. I am not against tweaking laws and giving prosecutors and judges discretion about whether to make offenders register or not. What I am against is the idea that there is something unworthy about these laws. I remember very well how 2 older men, teachers actually, began 'relationships' with girls in my highschool. Unstable girls from trououbled backgrounds. Shouldn't these girls be protected? Wouldn't the world be a better place if such men were held accountable everywhere?