Quote: Originally Posted by
Omega_Prime
You read my post as only to this but I mean generic. If there is any bad doings it should be what the other party things (not just their parents) whether it should be taken to the next level.
Actually, I only read that far for the humorous side of it.
As for the serious side of it, I happen to have a problem with that. As has been pointed out, had it been a 26 year old man and a 13 year old girl, the story would have a totally different ending. Even if the 13 year old girl was madly in love with the guy, and even if the parents were ok with it, the guy would still get 25 years.
There was this guy I worked with, 30 years old, who fell in love with this 15 year old girl. Of course, they started having sex, but with the parents consent, they also got married. Now, the guy wasn't even arrested or charged until after they were legally married. But, because there was a witness that they were having sex prior to the marriage, the guy was arrested on statutory rape charges, and got 20 years hard labor. That was against the protests of the "victim" and against the protests of the victim's family.
And, while that happened years ago, if it were to happen again today, the same exact thing would happen. Even if the girl protested, even if the parents protested, even if they were legally married at the time of arrest, the guy would still get a long jail term.
Would it be better if they took the victim's feelings into account? Yes. But, in most states, 13 is considered too young to be making those types of decisions. That's why statutory rape laws exist. Not to protect kids that age from actually getting raped, because statutory rape is only for cases of consensual sex. No, it's to protect kids from predators who will sweet talk and fool these kids into doing things they really don't have the judgement skills to understand properly.
There's also sexual parity to consider here. In almost every case of adults having sex with teens, men have gotten heavy sentences while the women have gotten light sentences. The circumstances have been identical, yet the men pay a higher penalty for the exact same offense.
So, while taking the feelings of the victims into account might be better, either take them into account in all cases, both male and female. or don't take them into account at all. And give sexual predators like this one, the same sentence you would give a man, not probation because the "poor woman has suffered enough".
But, rather than write all this, and start a heated discussion about the validity of statutory rape laws, I decided to make a quick joke and get out... I still think my first decision was the right one...
:)