Statutory Rape
I don’t know if you have been following this case or not. It made some pretty big headlines today, but this type of thing has been in the news a lot recently. Teenagers are being sent to jail for long periods of time for statutory rape.
Genarlow Wilson was sent to jail for 10 years after he engaged in oral sex with a 15 year old girl. He was 17 at the time. Because of the laws in Georgia, this was defined as statutory rape, even though it was consensual.
I understand the presupposition behind statutory rape, and I agree with it somewhat; at too young of an age, it is impossible for one partner to consent to sex. We can use an extreme example to prove that this statement is true at least some of the time. A two year old girl cannot “consent” to sex with a 35 year old man. I would hope that no reasonable person would think that she could.
But what about a 15 year old? Although not technically an adult, I think that 15 year olds are sufficiently able to consent to having sex. It is probably not advisable for them to do so, especially with a much older partner, but by that time, a teenager knows enough about the birds and the bees to consent.
Perhaps the best solution would be to have the statutory rape laws contain sliding scale for minors. For instance, anyone under the age of 18 can consent to sex, but the partner must be less than ten years older. That’s just an example. Because when legislatures set arbitrary boundaries (like in PA the age of consent is 16, so a 17 year old would be “raping” a 15 year old if they had sex) it unfairly punishes the offenders and doesn’t make sense.
By the way, in the Genarlow Wilson case, a judge just threw out the 10 year prison sentence. Georgia’s Attorney General is attempting to appeal that decision to keep Wilson in jail.
This is a sad situation. Think, this kid might have to register as a sex offender. I think someone was trying to make a very bad point here. Things are not blck and white. The law must look at some matters case by case.
The worst thing about the law in Georgia was that he was sentenced for a felony by receiving oral sex. Intercourse would have been a misdemeanor. He does have to register as a sex offender and can’t live at home when he gets out of prison or be anywhere near his sister because of her young age.
In Alabama, the age of consent is 16 but there is also a 2 (I think thats right) year allowance. So an 16 year old isn’t raping even a 14 year old. Of course in Alabama age 16 is the age that you can legally get married without parental consent as well.
This is a very sad situation. It is very similar to a friend of mine who was convicted of statutory rape for having sexing with a younger girl when he was 17 years old. He served 4 and a half years in prison and is now on the sex offender registry. Our small town newspaper runs his picture along with other sex offenders pictures about twice a year, usually when they do not have a lead story. I think it is a huge injustice, especially since he was so young himself and his life has been changed forever. He is now 30 years old and trying to live a productive and happy life, unsuccessfully. I am a child advocate and understand the moral implications of such a charge, but think that it is also very wrong to change the course of a person’s life for a poor decision made at the tender age of 17. I know of murderers and drug dealers who are treated better.