# Have there been studies on the effects on males who have sex with older women (usually teachers)? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [October 22, 2014, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-there-been-studies-on-the-effects-on-males-who-have-sex-with-older-women-usually-teachers/702203 "2014-10-22T23:34:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2014, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-there-been-studies-on-the-effects-on-males-who-have-sex-with-older-women-usually-teachers/702203/41 "2014-10-25T05:29:54Z")
> [@robert\_columbia](#): > > There’s a common understanding floating around that sex crime = serious harm to victim, and that’s one of the biggest justifications for the Sex Offender Registry and whatnot. Because people who do those things are inherently dangerous and hurt people very badly. > > It’s not likely that the laws are going to change anytime soon to make this legal, but it would be interesting to know if there has been any actual hardcode psychological research into the harm sustained by various acts under various situations. I’m not sure there really is even a way to quantify a measurement of sexual harm. I’m not sure one is needed. I think the best arguments against adults having sex with children are more along the lines of “criminal child endangerment” laws. I.e., you don’t punish the adult solely in a case where they **did** harm the child, you also punish them for putting the child in a situation where they were in significant **danger** of harm. I’m sure that many adolescent children have had sex with adults and not been harmed by it at all. I’m also sure that there’s absolutely no way to tell for sure when an adolescent would be seriously harmed by consensual statutory rape and when they wouldn’t. Therefore, responsible adults should simply consider all underage adolescents off-limits, in order to avoid the potential danger. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2014, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-there-been-studies-on-the-effects-on-males-who-have-sex-with-older-women-usually-teachers/702203/42 "2014-11-02T02:37:42Z")
> [@Stringbean](#): > > If it didn’t get publicized and turned into a huge public scandal, I wager it doesn’t do jack shit to these kids. That was largely the conclusion of the book \*Harmful to Minors; The Perils of Protecting Children from Sex - by Judith Levine, University of Minnesota Press, 2002. It caused a great firestorm among experts in the field, and even became political, with some politicians in the Legislature trying to cut the University budget for allowing the book to be published. Being of a cynical nature, I noted that the ‘experts in the field’ making the firestorm were all making a good living from the current ‘huge public scandal’ method of dealing with this. ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2014, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-there-been-studies-on-the-effects-on-males-who-have-sex-with-older-women-usually-teachers/702203/43 "2014-11-02T03:00:19Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > I’m not sure one is needed. I think the best arguments against adults having sex with children are more along the lines of “criminal child endangerment” laws. > > I.e., you don’t punish the adult solely in a case where they **did** harm the child, you also punish them for putting the child in a situation where they were in significant **danger** of harm. > > I’m sure that many adolescent children have had sex with adults and not been harmed by it at all. I’m also sure that there’s absolutely no way to tell for sure when an adolescent would be seriously harmed by consensual statutory rape and when they wouldn’t. Therefore, responsible adults should simply consider all underage adolescents off-limits, in order to avoid the potential danger. We don’t punish people based on harm, anyway. If you break in and steal my antique flowerpot, it doesn’t matter that I never liked it much anyway. If you steal $10,000 from Bill Gates, it doesn’t matter that he won’t notice it. We ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2014, 10:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-there-been-studies-on-the-effects-on-males-who-have-sex-with-older-women-usually-teachers/702203/44 "2014-11-02T10:44:05Z")
> [@even\_sven](#): > > We don’t punish people based on harm, anyway. The _presumed_ harm is built into the sentencing guidelines. [http://www.ussc.gov/sites/default/files/pdf/guidelines-manual/2014/GLMFull.pdf](http://www.ussc.gov/sites/default/files/pdf/guidelines-manual/2014/GLMFull.pdf) ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2014, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-there-been-studies-on-the-effects-on-males-who-have-sex-with-older-women-usually-teachers/702203/45 "2014-11-03T02:28:16Z")
> [@suranyi](#): > > How could that ever be considered fully consensual? She could destroy his life with a single word. How? No, really, I have no idea what mechanism she would have that could destroy his life, other than “I’m pregnant and we have to get married.” Flunking _World History_ because you wouldn’t have sex with your teacher is not the end of the world, and as other have pointed out, the teacher has MUCH more to fear. > [@you\_with\_the\_face](#): > > To me, the issue is not the harm caused by sex in and of itself, but the power differential… What power differential? Do you think guys think about things like that, especially when they are 15 and horny? Or care about grades when there is sex involved? I was too big a religious prude to go along with it, at least at first, but that would make me an unlikely target, too. And I certainly would not be mentally damaged by the experience, however it turned out. ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2014, 7:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-there-been-studies-on-the-effects-on-males-who-have-sex-with-older-women-usually-teachers/702203/46 "2014-11-08T07:44:36Z")
> [@suranyi](#): > > The issue isn’t the age difference. It’s the fact that she’s his teacher. How could that ever be considered fully consensual? She could destroy his life with a single word. A teacher in HS who has sex with a student, even without laws prohibiting this contact, could not ‘destroy’ anybody’s life with a single word. He need only tell the admin that they were doing it, and, she would lose all of her ability to influence anything in re him. I can’t see where anybody couldn’t see it as being consensual. Somebody’s ability to destroy a life isn’t necessarily equal with coercion. ---
**Author:** ![EdwinAmi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5fc32e/32.png) [@EdwinAmi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EdwinAmi)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2014, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-there-been-studies-on-the-effects-on-males-who-have-sex-with-older-women-usually-teachers/702203/47 "2014-11-17T19:30:25Z")
Bill Maher says men and women are different, so the effects are different. He says " A male teacher having sex with a female student can do some real damage. A female teacher having sex with a male student could only cause raised self esteem" BUT, there is such a thing as too much self-esteem! It would not be hard for a guy to get the wrong idea of how easy it is to get sex/a girlfriend, and what he has to do. This could culminate after years, when the psychic damage of not having sex sets in. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-there-been-studies-on-the-effects-on-males-who-have-sex-with-older-women-usually-teachers/702203.md?page=2)