An adult can be sent to prison or forced to register as a sex offender if they have sexual contact with a minor. Regardless of if they knew that the kid was a minor. As far as I understand, sexual contact includes everything from sex to exposi f oneself, to sending or receiving nudes. Solicited or not. One text is all it takes.
Some cases, as far as my view, seem to involve a predatory minor targeting adults.
One story I read involved a 14 year old on a dating/hookup site who lied about her age on her profile and Facebook. Two guys were jailed for having sex with her.
So an 17 year old can claim to be 18, and get an adult who consents to sex both imprisoned and registered as a sex offender.
So my question to you is: in addition to prosexuting pedophiles, should we also penalize minors for lying about their age in situations involving sexual contact? Keep in mind that legal penalty doesn't necessarily mean prison. Non-prison penalties can include: ● Fines ● Community service ● Restrictions (e. g. legal restrictions on internet use, curfews, house arrest, limited time insupervised by guardian). ● Being registered as a sex offender for a set time (maybe we Invent a separate minors' offenders list?)
In part of answering the question, ask yourself what our motivation as a society id for enforcing an age of consent is. That motive should also influence the legality of a minor's willful violation of the statute. Some motives for enshrining a legal age of consent: ●Protecting minors ●Punishing depraved sexual desires ●Protecting parents' rights ●Preserving public health (preventing STDs and trauma/depression from abuse) ●Having a minimum penalty for worse, associated crimes to plea down to (e. g. an attorney might be able to argue a child sex trafficker out of being convicted for human trafficking, but not be able to wiggle out of a statutory rape conviction).
Should there be legal ramifications for minors lying about their age?
All people have to do is put the phone on record: Full Name: how old are you. This is your Name speaking with other person’s Name…
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1 y
That can be strong evidence that the kid lied, but it's not a good defense against being convicted for statutory rape.
From what I read on attorney question websites, if an adult has sex with an underage minor, it's statutory rape, regardless of knowledge. It doesn't matter if they didn't know they were talking to a minor, or even if they had strong reason to believe that they were an adult (fake id?)
There is an exception for close age though. In PA (and some other states I think). A 16 year old can consent to sex, but not with someone more than 4 years older. But that's it. If a 17 year old claims to be 18. It doesn't matter if their friends and family all said the kid was 18. The offender gets convicted. I don't know if the other people get charged with something like aiding rape, though.
age of consents 16 where i live. i feel like anything below that you could most likely tell.
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New1 y
Where I am it's 16, but that's not the same as the age of majority. At 16, you can consent to sex with someone who is up to 4 years older. Older than that is a crime. Age 18 is old enough to consent to any age.
NO, because if they are minors they are legally incapable of being responsible for their actions.
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1 y
But I'm asking about what the law should be, not what it is. So I'm asking, if we are revisiting laws around sexual contact, should we hold minors to a standard?
