That’s why you eliminate the bullshit and make it strict liability. It’s your responsility to know what you’re sticking your dick in.
I never believe anyone who says they were fooled anyway.
This is crap. Children can’t consent. Don’t stick your dick in anyone you don’t KNOW to be an adult. If you get pinched, I don’t feel sorry for you and I probably won’t believe you.
You can’t fuck a child by accident.
It’s no defense in Thailand. Thai ladies often look impossibly young. I’ve known many 30-year-olds who looked 16!
Quite a few underage prostitutes will have fake IDs – sometimes manufactured fake, sometimes borrowed from a similar-looking older friend – but if the cops catch you, you’re simply out of luck. In fact, there are cases in which the underage hooker will call her police friend while you’re in the shower so he can bust in and pop you, then the two of them will split the bribe you’ve had to pay to stay out of jail.
Snip.
It must be a small, small world you live in. Not everything is black and white like that. I had casual sex a few times with a girl in college I later found out was underage. She lived away from her parents in a shared home with college students, looked over 18, and routinely attended parties where everyone was supposed be over 21 much less 18. Turns out she wasn’t. Luckily for me we had parted ways.
Yes. But your example isn’t perfect. A DUI implies a massive amount of negligent behaviour on the part of the driver. An accidental encounter with someone who maintains a deceptive image does not bear the same onus of deliberate disregard for the safety of others that Drinking and driving does.
Little story. Back when I first moved to Columbus, my parents would go out to sports bars to watch Buffalo Bills games, and would often take me along. One evening we were out at a sports bar/restaurant (think something like a Champps, but not a chain) and the waitress was going around with trays of free jello shots. She offered me one, and I gladly accepted, because hey, free jello! My parents, who were paying attention to the game, didn’t notice until I had taken it and the waitress offered them one too. They saw mine and freaked out.
I was eleven years old. I was also 5’8" tall, wore a size 8-10, and had a B-cup. I was intelligent and articulate for my age, and frequently fooled people into thinking I was much older than I was.
I now work in juvenile court, and frequently see 13 to 15-year-old girls who could easily pass for 18+, especially considering some of the stuff their mothers let them wear.
One last anecdote. An old ex of mine, who was about 26 at the time, once told me of the story about how he had sex with a 16-year-old without realizing it. They met at the bar, where she was drinking tequila shots. He found out her age the next morning, and he was still sick about it a few years later.
I simply cannot believe any 11 year old can be mistaken for a drink age adult. You got the jello shot because of sheer carelessness or want on the part of the providing party.
The real reason ignorance isn’t an excuse, is becuase it’s such an easy cop out.
It’s far to easy for an adult to pressure a minor then scream “I didn’t know.”
If you accepted this as an excuse you would lose virtually all enforcement of the law, 'cause everyone would be crying “I didn’t know.”
Or we could lower the age of consent to a more reasonable 16 across the board and solve the majority of the problems. The police could then focus on actual pedophiles.
I do not buy for a second that an eleven year old could be mistaken for a 21 year old. Not for a second. Nor do I buy any of this bullshit about 13 or 14 year olds supposedly looking like 18 year olds. No they don’t, and it’s no excuse even if they do. If a girl actually IS 13, then she looks young enough for there to be doubt. If a guy doesn’t know a girl well enough to know how old she is, then h doesn’t know here well enough to fuck her.
I don’t believe these guys as a general rule anyway. They say they didn’t know, but the truth is they just didn’t really want to know or they convinced themselves that they had plausibile deniability.
I think it’s disgusting that so many guys in this thread are trying to find weaselly justifications as to why they should be able to fuck underage girls, or why they’re the victims if they do.
It’s an extremely avoidable crime.
That already is the age of consent in most states. I think that’s still grossly young, but it’s already the typical statutory age.
The age of consent varies from state to state. In most states it isn’t 18.
http://www.4parents.gov/sexrisky/teen_sex/statelaws_chart/statelaws_chart.html
What if you are at a nudist colony and trip?
And if they can get a randomly selected group of 12 citizens to buy that then they should go free.
No they shouldn’t. They still committed the crime.
As a personal anecdote, a female relative of mine (who is now overage), could easily pass (and did) for 18 when she was 15, so long as she was dressed up.
Not according to the jury.
By the way, should “I didn’t know how fast I was going” be a defense to speeding? Should a prosecutor have to prove you knew you were speeding?
What if you really, honestly thought you weren’t that drunk?
No, what you thought is of no consequence. It’s what you do that matters.
Sleeping “unintentionally[” with an underaged girl is a crime of negligence even in the best light. It’s every adult’s responsibility to ensure that their sex partners are of legal age.
We were discussing what the jury “should” be allowed to determine. They should not be asked to be mind readers, and I’m saying it’s not relevant in any case because the damage to the child is the same. The point of the law is to protect children from being raped. It’s not relevant what the rapist was thinking. The damage is the same.
Scenario:
Man is in a bar - we’ll say its an American one, so you need to be over 21 to get in.
He starts talking to a young woman who talks about her college course.
She is extremely mature and forthright about sex, and invites him back to her place.
He thinks this is great, but he remembers seeing a discussion of underage girls looking older on the SD, and even though she is an over-21s bar, and has told him she is 21, he wants to be sure.
He ruins the mood a little by asking to see her ID, which she duly shows him.
They go back to her apartment and have sex.
Then, it turns out that she was a 15-year old using her sisters ID, who she bears a striking resemblance to.
Should this man go to jail?
Reason says no.
Yes, he should go to jail. He raped a little girl.
I also don’t find this scenario very plausible.