It is, so far as I know, universally illegal in the US for anyone over 20 years of age to have sex with a minor, up to age 18, correct? Even if the minor or parents do not file charges on the adult having sex with said minor, the law can press charges, right?
Well, now and then I watch Jerry Springer – which is going rapidly down hill – but on several shows, 20+ year old guys admitted they were screwing 15 + year old girls and along with the sick complications always brought up on the show.
My question is, why aren’t these guys arrested after the show? One guy seemed to prefer 15 and 16 year olds. Some knocked up the kids. (Contraceptives, I guess, to most JS guests are mysteries they have yet to solve.)
I mean, around here, let someone accuse a guy of screwing a kid and the cops show up, but on JS, the guys brag about it on national TV, refuse to stop screwing their current kid and the kid agrees!!
Where’s the cops?
Why can someone get arrested in one place for having voluntary sex with a 15 or 16 year old, but not in another?
Virginia, for example, has an Age of Consent of 15.
However, in Virgina, the point is moot. Other Virgina state laws prohibit you from having sex with anyone you’re not married to. (I guess the slogan “Virginia is for lovers” was meant to entrap unsuspecting couples. )
Which leads to the next question, namely: What about those guests on Jerry Springer who talk about having had premarital sex, who live in states like Virginia? Why haven’t they been arrested?
Virginia’s age of consent is not really fifteen, since Va. Code § 18.2-371 provides in relevant part:
The penalties for carnal knowledge of a child between thirteen and fifteen are more severe - a felony- and more severe still for children under thirteen. But an adult may not legally have consensual sexual intercourse with a sixteen year-old in Virginia.
The age of consent varies from state to state, going as low as 14 in some states, and it has changed a lot since I first discovered that site that keeps track of the laws - only a couple of years ago the age of consent in Delaware was an unbelievable TWELVE, but only if the girl was not a virgin, and last year New Mexico had it at 13, though they raised it to 17 (except for homosexual sex). I think Hawaii and one other still have it at 14, a dozen or so at 15.
These laws are often not enforced, however. The age of consent is 17 in Texas, but in the town I lived in there was a 13 year old who was sexually promiscuous and it was common knowledge. Her mother did not care, she hung out at a pool hall where probably half the regulars had screwed her daughter.
I’m leery of most sex laws, including these age of concent laws. To the extent that they’re enforced at all, they are usually only enforced in cases where the male is 21 or older and the female is under the official age of concent (16, 17, 18, whatever). But technically, when two fifteen year olds go all the way (or two 16 year olds, if the age of concent is 17 or 18), they could be arresed: the boy could be charged with statutory rape, and the girl with being a “person in need of supervision” or a “juvinile in need of supervision”. These laws can be used against anyone the authorities want to use them against.
Re older male/younger female relationships – I don’t think a guy in his twenties should be dating girls under 17. But when one does so, is he really committing a crime? The very same crime he’d be charged with if the girl was pre-pubescent? Usually, if a 23 year old guy is dating a 16 year old girl, it’s because he’s operating on a 16 year old level himself. Immaturity, low intelligence, or both are at work.
And this gets (obliquely) to another point about the AoC laws: forget the legal AoC if you’re gay. You will be prosecuted for any and everything the state can come up with regardless of age of consent or differences between.
This is a major injustice, in my opinion. Not that I want to sleep with 15-year olds, but the fact that the law ignores 30-year-old men with 15-year-old girlfriends but latches onto 22-year-old men with 17-year-old boyfriends is just wrong. There should at least be parity in ages…whether that means raising the straight AoC to equal the unofficial “gay” age of consent or lowering the gay age of consent to equal the straight age of consent.
IIRC, the UK recently had a major brouhaha over the equalization of straight and gay ages of consent.
I agree with jayjay. In any jurisdiction, same sex relationships and oposite sex relationships should be handled the same way; there should not be a disparity. The fact that there is a disparity points up the fact that these laws can be used however the local authorities want to use them.
Hazel Do you have any evidence to back up your assertion about when the laws of consent are enforced?
IME, I’ve seen both same sex and opposite sex charged with Criminal Sexual Conduct, where the age differential was less than 3 years. Of course, keep in mind that some jurisdictions require a certain amount of age differential in order to prosecute.
I’ve also seen cases where no prosecution happened (opposite sex, they have a child together, she was pregnant when she was 14, age of consent is 16, father was about 30 when conception occured. No prosecution, I believe, 'cause there was no complaint filed - her mom thought he was a ‘good catch’ :rolleyes: )
Hey…
wait a…
So you had to prove that somebody else DID do it with her illegally?
Devious!
A lot of “sexual consent” laws – age, same-sex relations, non-marital, etc., are selectively enforced across the land. To be fair, in many places it’s because the authorities normally have their hands full with other things, and know that someone’s habits being “general knowledge” is no case, but then are obligated to follow up if someone files an actual complaint.
jrd
People have been arrested for admitting to statuatory “rape” on these trashy talk shows. You just don’t hear about because they aren’t schoolteachers, little league coaches, boy scout troop leaders or high-ranking Disney executives.
As for those who don’t get arrested…it’s a matter of limited resources for law enforcement. They simply don’t have the time and money to bust EVERY crime, and they certainly don’t monitor these trashy talk shows on a round-the-clock basis. Somebody has to report it to them and make a big enough stink to get an investigation started.
Besides, the people on the show are having consentual sex, after all. It’s not like they are detailing plans to blow up the White House or anything. Despite the total lack of sympathy for adults who like to have sex with teenagers, law enforcement would rather focus on REAL crimes, such as adults who prey on very YOUNG children.
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