Exactly how old do you think most SDMB posters are?
Florida has sort of a weird law for this. A person aged 24 or below cannot be prosecuted for a consensual sexual act with a person aged 16 or 17*. However, if the defendant is older than 24 or the victim is younger than 16, there’s no protection at all.
Most of the time, these kids are offered pretrial diversion. I expect, but for the media response, that would already have occurred here.
*Theoretically, the older one could still be charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
It’s statutory rape, plain and simple. She doesn’t get a pass because she’s female.
If anyone, regardless of gender, had sex with my daughter at 14 or 15, I’d be pretty upset. That’s just too young. If the person turned out to be 18, I’d be pretty likely to prosecute. The difference in judgement and “power” in a relationship between those two ages is enormous.
Of course I’d like to think that our relationship is such that I woudl know early on and put an end to it before it got tp that point, but that’s not the hypothetical before us.
17-18 year-olds who date 14-15 year-olds know perfectly well what they are doing,and that kids that much younger are easy to manipulate. If the older one were male, I don’t think there would even be a disucssion here. If her parents want her to be treated equally with heterosexuals, then thy also have to accept responsibility for teaching her about statutory rape laws and instilling the self-discipline to follow them.
That should be her decision, not yours, or anybody else’s.
Should it be her decision is she’s 9?
She’ll have to get up to about 17 before I’ll agree with that statement.
I agree 100%. In my youth I saw several young boys and girls manipulated into sexual relationships by older kids.
This. Both parents should have shut it down on day one.
Do we even know if they had sex?
One thought - I didn’t look at this as 18/15 (the original OP), but rather as Senior to Sophomore relationship. We had a lot of those in my rural high school, and the issue of Seniors turning 18 during Senior year would sometimes be talked about.
But in terms of life stage - the Seniors were still in high school, and I did not see them as anything else than a high schooler.
That’s pretty much my line of thought: if you don’t want kids of these ages interacting, don’t put them in the same school.
How many kids would go to jail if we arrested every senior in high school who dated a sophomore? How many DOPERS would have been in jail under those circumstances?
I laugh at the idea that an 18 year old is some how a totally different beast than a 14 or 15 year old. It varies so much from person to person that you really can’t make any sort of general statements. They are all kids. They all go to the same schools (high school). They are 2 or 3 grades apart.
As a former high school teacher who taught sophomores, juniors, and seniors, I can say that they are all about the same, really, truly, honestly.
The thing that really bothers me about this, is that the parents said nothing and did nothing about their relationship while the ‘offender’ was under 18. But the moment she turned 18, they went to the cops. That’s just wrong and should be reason enough to throw out the case. 18 and 15 is not such an age difference that it should be illegal. Especially when they were in a relationship before the elder even turned 18. You have to use some damn common sense here.
That gets me too. The parents of the younger waited until the older girl turned 18. I already joined the FB group and signed the change.org petition in regards to this. I’d love to see the judge throw this out.
I don’t understand where you are gettign that. Everything I’ve read says that Kaitlyn was 18 and the younger girl was 14 when the relationship started. Which in my opionion is indefensible. Please link to the information you are seeing?
Well I went looking and it seems there’s been a lot of misinformation floating around (shocker!). I found this
[quote]
(Bot Verification) from Kaitlyn’s uncle regarding her age.
“Finally, it has incorrectly been reported that Kaitlyn Hunt was arrested on her just after her 18th birthday. She actually turned 18 around the same time they began dating and the girl’s parents didn’t press charges until several months later.”
Either way, there’s only a 3 year difference between them. 18 and 15 are pretty damn close developmentally wise. And I still think it was rotten of the other parents to press charges. I mean, that’s just ridiculous. Hell, if what Kaitlyn’s mother said was true, her daughter had never even dated a girl before this one.
According to CNNs interview the girls were 18 and 14 when it started.
"In an interview with CNN affiliate WPEC, Jim and Laurie Smith insisted that the girls’ gender has nothing to do with the case. They are concerned about ages.
“Our daughter was 14, and this girl was 18,” said Jim Smith.
According to the Smiths, they twice warned Hunt to stop."
I gotta reserve judgment until the reported details stop shifting around, since in this age group, minor changes can have big implications. I think it’s fair to subject people in these circumstances to some close scrutiny to really determine whether there was undue influence or coercion, but that doesn’t mean arrest first and ask questions later. Just the opposite.
Crucial information that we don’t appear to have yet:
Did they HAVE sex? A lot of kids, especially younger ones, date by holding hands and going to movies together. Is this a conclusion that the parents/prosecutors are jumping to?
How old were they when they first had sex? I’m less concerned about when the relationship started than when the sex did. What is the age gap? I’ve seen it reported as variously just over 2 years, 3 years, and 4 years.
The homophobia of the younger girl’s parents is clouding the issue, which is not cool.
I don’t think the majority of 14-year-olds are emotionally mature and intellectually savvy enough to give informed consent (the informed part being just as important as the consent part, AFAIC). However, if all they did was hold hands, peck on the lips, and make eyes at each other, it doesn’t rise to the level of a big legal to-do. If they never actually had sex, or didn’t until the younger was a month shy of 16, this is a great big non-issue and the parents who are pressing charges are douchebags. However if it was a 14 YO and an 18 YO naked and gettin busy, yeah, that’s a problem.
Kaitlyn Hunt rejected the plea deal. That could be a huge mistake. The legal analysts are saying this is a easy case to make. The ages makes it a crime.
Charging a teenage for sex with a classmate is wrong from my viewpoint, but that won’t keep her out of prison.