# Can a child be a sex offender?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-child-be-a-sex-offender/550809>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [August 20, 2010, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-child-be-a-sex-offender/550809 "2010-08-20T00:34:24Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 2

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\
**Post date:** [August 30, 2010, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-child-be-a-sex-offender/550809/21 "2010-08-30T14:29:03Z")

</div>

The title made me think of one of Spider Robinson’s stories set in Callahan’s Saloon: Fast Eddie Costigan drinks a toast “To child molesters – I was one.” Then he explains he was a child and a molester – as a pubescent boy, he was sent to live with his uncle, who happened to be bisexual, and when Eddie figured out he was bisexual too, he crept into his uncle’s bed and seduced him. When the business came out, the uncle went to prison where he didn’t live long before being shanked, and Eddie went to a Catholic home for troubled boys where he had to endure the attentions of **real** child molesters.

I don’t know if that ever happens in real life, but it’s not entirely implausible.

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-child-be-a-sex-offender/550809.md?page=1)