There is no such crime as “sexual abuse” in Wisconsin. They were charged with “sexual assault.” There is no connotation in the language of the statute that abuse or coercion was involved.
Nope. Under Wis stat. 940.225(3m) you’re guilty of 4th degree sexual assault if you have “sexual contact with a person without the consent of that person” and the boy could not legally consent to sexual contact. There is no age specified in the statute. So she’s guilty of the charge.
You are “coming off” likely close to how you intend, as someone curious and perhaps a bit frustrated by we "mean old adults’ " restrictions, but basically imo, you are a normal, polite poster.
As my daughter would say “riiiHIiiighht”. My daughter was bigger than me, and if she’d a mind to, she could have thumped me to within and inch of my life by the time she was 14.
What are you NUTS? Besides which, Oh yeah, Violence is a good answer!!
Now THIS makes a LOT more sense. My “purse strings” NOT my right hook are what kept my daughter halfway in line.
But bear in mind, if the kid has seriously veered over into delinquency, “economic sanctions” aren’t going to control her either.
My verdict: Not Fair.
Sorry, I missed this question of yours previously, or the meaning rather.
What are my specific, personal reasons for not wanting my teens engaging in sex?
Well, first of all, the obvious. I don’t want them getting pregnant, or knocking up some other teen. I don’t want them getting any deadly diseases.
And yes, I KNOW that you keep saying that teens can avail themselves of various solutions to keep things things from happening. Sorry, for most kids? I don’t buy it. Hell, half the kids I know can’t even be counted upon to consistantly do their homework or clean their rooms. They’re gonna make sure they use a condom everytime?
Besides, stating that “there’s abortion, adoption, RU486, keeping the baby” as “SOLUTIONS” to possible “oopsies”?
Um, okay, as stated before, teens have a hard time making it out of bed in the morning, they’re gonna be able to handle colic? 3am feedings? The guilt/depression and other psychological, possibly physiological consequences of having and abortion? The expense of an emergency doctor visit? The pill itself??
Adoption, hard hard thing to go through for ADULTS to give up their own child, let alone a young person.
These are just some of the emotional agonies I’d like to spare my children.
OK, my main problem with the whole situation is the fact that she called the police on them. The sex offender thing on their record will mess up their lives later if they want to be a teacher (because they won’t pass their clearances).
I understand the mom not wanting them to have sex. She would be the one who ending up caring for a baby if there was an accidental pregnancy. But it is ridiculous for them to be able to be charged with sexual assault of one another and it’s also ridiculous for the mom to mess up their lives like that.
In PA, it’s still supposedly illegal to have oral sex or have sex in any position except missionary. Do you think I should go to jail or be fined because I give and recieve oral, and like to be creative on the positions?
This thing with the kids is just as ridiculous.
Canvas, you are still making this about something other than what it was - a sex crime conviction for something that should not be a sex crime.
You are making it into a way for parents to deal with problems. This is ludicrous, because how many parents have EVER dealt with a problem by having their teenager convicted of a sex crime for safe consensual sex with someone their own age?
I doubt you ever even thought this was a good strategy before, but now that you know it has been used you are having a fit about the possibility that you could lose the power to have your kid arrested and convicted for a sex crime when all they did was have safe consensual sex with someone their own age.
More importantly, the “other problems” you mention do not in any way justify sex crimes convictions:
People should not be convicted of sex crimes because they are “disrespectful.”
If they have other problems, then DEAL with those other problems. Not going to school? Doing drugs? Driving without a license? There are ways to deal with those problems. NONE of those ways is “have your child convicted of a sex crime.”
Which is a good thing, right? Consensual sex between teenagers of the same age is completely natural, and should not be illegal.
Again, I am not saying that parents should do nothing about it. Just that it should not be illegal. It is the parent’s job to raise their kid, not the government’s. Incidentally, teen pregnancy is at an all time low. Education really does help.
This is extremely short-sighted.
What if two teenagers are secretly photographed by someone dangerous? Now the lunatic can blackmail them, and threaten to have them arrested for sex crimes, when really HE is the one that should be arrested! That is one backwards society you are planning there, Wang-Ka.
Teenagers should not be able to be hurt and abused, or worse, because they did something completely natural that should not be illegal.
Once more, with feeling: Their records will be expunged when they turn 18. IT WON’T BE ON THEIR ADULT RECORD.
No, actually it won’t. As other posters have noted here. Their records will be expunged when they reach 18.
Teachers have to have security clearances now? Holy cow. They’re taking this homeland security thing TOO darn far 
First, to address the OP: I can’t load the link, so I’ll have to go by what other posters have said. And IMO, while the kids may be jerks or have caused trouble in the past, calling the cops on them for having consensual sex is obscene - though not as appalling as the fact that it’s even against the law in the first place.
The mother wants to vent her rage through the legal system? Fine… game on. She calls the cops for this, they can call CPS next time she smokes in the house, feeds them a non-nutritious meal, or for whatever other bullshit reason they can shoehorn into the definition of neglect. (Or, better yet, whenever their newfound repressed memories of molestation start acting up.) And she’d better hope she never has to depend on her daughter for anything: She may end up staring at the ceiling in a nursing home, covered with bedsores and sedated 16 hours a day.
I’ve participated in threads like this one before, and from what I’ve seen: No, there isn’t even a lick of scientific evidence. There’s nothing but gut feelings and vague prejudice.
Prejudice? Who is prejudiced against whom and for what?
Latest update
Judge rules teen should be tried in assault case
Original Article
Teens have right to have sex, lawyer argues
Mr2001: How many 14-year-olds do you know who are going to school full time, working full time and supporting their own offspring (without the help of their parents or the taxpayers)? How many 14-year-olds do you know who could handle that level of responsibility?
I’d just like to pop in here and in hijack things long enough to annouce that this is the first time that my little city has been featured on the straight dope.
Thanks guys.
Please continue…
Those who suggest that 14 year olds as a group are incapable of responsibly having sex (or responsibly engaging in various other activities) are prejudiced against youth.
Unless the girl is pregnant, it doesn’t matter whether she or her boyfriend can support a child or not. In any case, there are well-known ways to prevent pregnancy, and to prevent pregnancy from leading to childbirth. The kids have already learned all about it if they go to a quality school.
I find it pretty disturbing how much some people demonize youth. It is completely natural for teenagers to have sex with peers of their own age. Making it a sex crime is just disgusting.
If your kid is disrespectful, doing drugs, skipping school, driving without a license, etc - there are ways to deal with it. But guess what - NONE of those ways involve having your kid arrested and convicted of a sex crime. It’s just outright ridiculous, not to mention extremely insulting to real victims of real sex crimes.
And it puts the kids in harm’s way. If this sick law starts to actually get enforced regularly, it would do immense damage. Some criminal takes photos of teenagers having safe, consensual sex - and now the psycho can blackmail them and threaten to have them arrested for a sex crime if they don’t do whatever he says! This is evil! In any sane society, he would be the one to be locked up. But not here in bizarro land - here we let the kids be abused by any adult who chooses to abuse them, because - get this - we have to protect them at any cost from the tragedy of completely natural safe consensual sex with someone their own age. I don’t think so. Use your heads and get rid of this insane law.
That’s a non-answer and you know it. Just because it doesn’t always happen doesn’t mean it can’t happen. And if it does happen, the 14-year-olds involved damned well better be prpared and capable to be responsible for the consequences, wouldn’t you agree?
Especially since we’ve discussed previously about the male’s inability to stop the woman he impregnates from carrying the child to term, and keeping the child.
It doesn’t matter who well “educated” the girl is, she can still change her mind if (God Forbid) the birth control fails. (And birth control is not foolproof.) She can refuse to take the “morning after” pill. She can forget to take her birth conotrol pills. The condom can tear. And once she’s pregnant, as you well know, he cannot stop her from keeping the child and he cannot get out of being financially responsible for the child.
So, once again, how many 14-year-olds do you know who are capable of being financially responsible (without any help from parents or taxpayers) for supporting this child that “accidentally” happened? You are not claiming that there’s 0% chance of it happening, are you?
Oh great… now you are arguing that sex crimes should be based on the ability of the people involved to support a child.
What’s next - it’s not rape if the rapist pays child support?
Nighttime: Please copy and paste where I advocated charging these kids with sex crimes.
Copy and paste. Copy and paste.
I merely said that the parents of these copulating 14-year-olds have a vested interest in stopping them from having sex and possibly breeding. It’s not about trying to spoil the kids’ “natural desire,” it’s (as Wang Ka put it, I believe) a fear of being “drowned in grandchildren.”
How about the homeless, should it be illegal to allow them to breed since they can’t provide a home for the children? What about the mentally ill homeless who can’t get a job either? No sex for them or jail?
Saying teens can’t have sex due to pregnancy is a cop-out. Condoms can break, birth control can fail, and after that, the girl can choose not to use RU481, adoption, or abortion. However, these are very very rare circumstances, and I believe, the exception. You portray this as the MAJORITY in order to support the outlawing of teen sex.