Is Statutory Rape Harmful?

[Rocketbutt]

Is there any evidence that an adult having consensual sex with a teenager results in harm of any kind? I can't find any.

 

For example many states in the USA have an age of consent of 18. However many European nations have an age of consent of 14 (Italy, Germany, Portugal, Austria) - do these nations condone child abuse? I doubt it.

 

Another idiosyncrasy is that once of age (i.e. 18 in California) no one can object to an exploitative sexual relationship. A 40 year old man can have sex with this young adult, who has little experience of life, and even degrade them in pornographic films. Meanwhile a 20 year old will be arrested and labelled a 'pedophile' for having a loving relationship with a 15 year old girl.

 

In fact it could even be argued that adults having sex with prepubescents isn't necessarily harmful, although I don't want to discuss that here.

 

Can anyone here justify the age of consent being what it is? Can anyone here provide evidence that sex before a certain age is harmful?

[wow04]

I really don't know how I feel about this. When I was 15 I was dating a 19 year old. We were together for 4 years.

 

I also know a guy that was 20 and dated a 15 year old, he got locked up for statutory rape and has to registar as a sex offender. Now he is married to that girl and they have 2 kids. The sex offender title will follow him the rest of his life.

 

As a mother I would not appove of my daughter being 15 and dating a 19 or 20 yr old.

[bentnotbroken]

It would be harmful if I found out someone had sex with one of my children when they were underage. I would gladly spend whatever life I had left behind bars after making sure the adult understood they would never have sex with anyone ever again....at least not without a prosthetic device.

[woinlove]

Some of the things I have seen reported from studies are that, first, in relationships between young teen ands older individuals, the young teen is more likely to have sex than if they are in a relationship with someone their own age and studies also found

 

- more risky sex behavior, such as lower use of contraceptives and safe sex (maybe because the young teen looks up to the older person as the one who should be responsible, but older people choosing young teens for sex partners may not be that responsible)

 

- end effect is higher rate of teen pregnancy and STDs

 

- increased alcohol and drug use by the young teen (presumably the other person is often of drinking age and will want to share this with their sex partner).

 

I've also seen studies say that young teens who are involved with an older individual have more sex partners during their school age years on average than young teens who do not. Perhaps this contributes to their higher rate of STDs as well.

[CarrieT]

Statutory rape victim chiming in....

 

I was 16-going-on-17 when I had an affair with a 37-year old man (a teacher). It came out of being violently raped earlier in the year and the teacher was trying to console me. At the time, I thought I was oh-so mature and could emotionally handle the relationship. There was a HUGE scandal when the story broke (national news back then; now it is almost de rigueur when it comes to the media). I also posted recently in one of Hokie's threads how I, as an 18-year-old, had sex with a man who was in his 60s.

 

Thirty years later, I can't tell you how emotionally damaging it was to me. Not just the scandal aspect, but the fact that these man preyed on my lack of self-worth and innocence. It shaped who I was as a young adult and made me ill-prepared to have a "proper" relationship for many, many years. I passed myself around from man to man, looking for acceptance and love, but I believe much of my self-degradation stems back to those early molestations and rapes.

 

Referring to Wow's post - yes, technically a relationship between a 15 year old and a 19 year old is statutory rape but I believe that only a four-year difference in ages (when immaturity is still a factor) is one thing. It is another for someone like me who experienced a considerably larger age difference with men who preyed on teens and there really was no "relationship" but sex.

 

I'm sure if you dig around the 'net, you will find studies on how damaging it is. I would be surprised if you couldn't find one...

[ThaWholigan]

I have male friends who had sex with older women in their mid-teens (14-16), some in my school had it with one of the female teachers!

 

I don't know how it affected them, but I wonder if it is different for young boys than young girls? Over here though, 16 is the legal age.

[SincereOnlineGuy]

Is there any evidence that an adult having consensual sex with a teenager results in harm of any kind? I can't find any.

 

 

Firstly, pedophilia has zero to do with fifteen-year-olds.

 

 

Secondly, when your method of study is to go to Google images, type in 'statutory r...', and then look for cuts, bruises and scrapes, then of course you're not going to find any!

 

If instead you were to make an effort to study human psychology, listen to past victims and what they're doing in the present, and take into account how they relate to others, THEN you might unearth the "harm" you are only pretending to look for here.

[Rocketbutt]

Thank you for your replies.

 

woinlove, you claim relationships between adults and teenagers frequently result in STDs, Pregnancy and other problems. This sounds very interesting, can you provide me with the source of this information?

 

I have always assumed that a relationship between an adult and a teenager could be positive in the sense that the older partner could provide support to the younger partner due to having more life experience.

 

[/url]CarrieT, I am so sorry for what you have experienced. However statutory rape is usually consensual, where as the abuse you suffered was coercive and exploitative. For example the relationship between Caroline Flack (32) and Harry Styles (17) is not analogous to your relationship with a teacher.

 

 

If instead you were to make an effort to study human psychology, listen to past victims and what they're doing in the present, and take into account how they relate to others, THEN you might unearth the "harm" you are only pretending to look for here.

 

I have done my research thoroughly, there is no empirical evidence proving sex below a certain age is harmful. If there was ages of consent would be more consistent across nations. You sound like you have some knowledge on the subject, can you explain to me why an adult having sex with consenting, post-pubescent individuals is harmful?

[CarrieT]

CarrieT, I am so sorry for what you have experienced. However statutory rape is usually consensual, where as the abuse you suffered was coercive and exploitative. For example the relationship between Caroline Flack (32) and Harry Styles (17) is not analogous to your relationship with a teacher.

 

Let me try to explain again.

 

At that age, I honestly believed I was mature and intelligent enough to make qualified decisions in that realm. I believed it was consensual at the time.

 

It was only in retrospect - years later, when I had matured - that I realized my adolescent brain was believing in a maturity that really did not exist.

 

I believe that many 17-year old brains are not yet wired to have adult relationships. The example you cite does not correlate because that is a celebrity romance and everything is off table with those because they live entirely different lifestyles which don't pertain to John Q. Public. It is not how most people live and the scrutiny and demands on their lives do not correlate.

 

I believe your Harry Stiles will make the same argument now - that he is mature enough to handle and have the relationship. But I question what he would say twenty and thirty years from now about the relationship.

[woinlove]

Thank you for your replies.

 

woinlove, you claim relationships between adults and teenagers frequently result in STDs, Pregnancy and other problems. This sounds very interesting, can you provide me with the source of this information?

 

I have always assumed that a relationship between an adult and a teenager could be positive in the sense that the older partner could provide support to the younger partner due to having more life experience.

 

A platonic, responsible relationship could be positive, but in more typical case, of a 25 year old man "dating" a 14 year old girl, for example, he is likely interested in having sex with her and she is much more likely to have sex with him, statistically, than with someone she is dating within 2 years of her age. It is difficult with these age gaps to determine consent versus corruption, exploitation, coercion and often they bring in professionals to try to determine that as the crime can be more serious even than statutory rape. The majority of young teens having sex with adults are more serious crimes. Many jurisdictions have a sliding scale where the severity of the crime/penalty increases with age gap and also takes into account whether the adult has a mentor/teacher role which they exploited to get sex with a minor. You can learn what you want about this topic using google, including studies using 1000's of cases.

[Els]

Basically, you just need a cut-off point for legal purposes. Sure, there's no 'evidence' that having sex with someone who is 17, especially if you're just 18 yourself, is necessarily harmful. But 18 is considered the minimum age to be considered a 'legal adult' in many places - able to purchase alcohol, own property, vote, fully liable for his/her own crimes, etc. So having sex is grouped in with the larger category of 'legal adult'.

 

There is no proof either that allowing a 17 year old to purchase alcohol is more harmful than allowing an 18 year old to do so, or that a 15 year old is less capable of driving than a 16 year old, or that someone aged 18 is necessarily more aware of his/her crimes than someone aged 17. Evidently everyone's maturity differs - why, I can think of 50-year-olds who are less 'mature' than some 20-year-olds I know. However, you still need to draw a line SOMEwhere. Otherwise a 50-year-old could well be having sex with a 6-year-old. No harm done, right?

[woinlove]

Basically, you just need a cut-off point for legal purposes. Sure, there's no 'evidence' that having sex with someone who is 17, especially if you're just 18 yourself, is necessarily harmful. But 18 is considered the minimum age to be considered a 'legal adult' in many places - able to purchase alcohol, own property, vote, fully liable for his/her own crimes, etc. So having sex is grouped in with the larger category of 'legal adult'.

 

There is no proof either that allowing a 17 year old to purchase alcohol is more harmful than allowing an 18 year old to do so, or that a 15 year old is less capable of driving than a 16 year old, or that someone aged 18 is necessarily more aware of his/her crimes than someone aged 17. Evidently everyone's maturity differs - why, I can think of 50-year-olds who are less 'mature' than some 20-year-olds I know. However, you still need to draw a line SOMEwhere. Otherwise a 50-year-old could well be having sex with a 6-year-old. No harm done, right?

 

Most places have a minimum age gap for statutory rape. For those who don't, I wonder if they have prosecuted where the age difference is only 1 or 2 years.

[Els]

Most places have a minimum age gap for statutory rape. For those who don't, I wonder if they have prosecuted where the age difference is only 1 or 2 years.

 

I'm not certain about the legality, but I'd like to hope that any judge or jury with common sense would rule in favour of no penalty for cases where the age gap was minimal and there was no other incriminating evidence of 'rape'.

[Radu]

OP, the sex offender laws in the US are a blunt tool.

Quite frankly i wonder how such a law which does not allow for interpretation was allowed to pass.

Oh, who am i kidding ... national hysteria and NOW played a large role.

 

A just-passed 18yr old who dates a 15yr old in a serious relationship should not be put on that list, without a snowball's chance in hell of being removed, in the company of real animals.

[Forever Silent]

Is there any evidence that an adult having consensual sex with a teenager results in harm of any kind? I can't find any.

 

For example many states in the USA have an age of consent of 18. However many European nations have an age of consent of 14 (Italy, Germany, Portugal, Austria) - do these nations condone child abuse? I doubt it.

 

Another idiosyncrasy is that once of age (i.e. 18 in California) no one can object to an exploitative sexual relationship. A 40 year old man can have sex with this young adult, who has little experience of life, and even degrade them in pornographic films. Meanwhile a 20 year old will be arrested and labelled a 'pedophile' for having a loving relationship with a 15 year old girl.

 

In fact it could even be argued that adults having sex with prepubescents isn't necessarily harmful, although I don't want to discuss that here.

 

Can anyone here justify the age of consent being what it is? Can anyone here provide evidence that sex before a certain age is harmful?

 

This is indeed a very touchy subject. A long time ago, when women were able to bear children, they were married off. Now things are more diffcult to determine. The brain is constantly developing and even at 18. As I said this is a touchy subject and there are many types of arguments that cound be raised. However me personaly, I believe the age of consent should be atleast a mininum of 18, and a maxium of 21.

[carhill]

OTOH, there is the story of my exSIL and her H, he 17, she 16, getting pregnant and marrying and that pregnancy resulting in a profound but resolvable birth defect. They worked through it, went on to have another child and now have four grandchildren and have been married 29 years. Had he been one year older, here in Cali she would've been 'jailbait'. So, did him being a minor make their relationship more or less likely to succeed than that of an 'adult'? Was SIL 'harmed' by teenage sex and pregnancy? If she was, I saw little evidence of it. Pretty 'normal' lady, IMO.

 

Society draws an arbitrary boundary with its statutes; it's 'laws'. At best, they are a general solution and general deterrent and can never be expected to address the vast diversity of human experience. Is statutory rape harmful? Society and the lawmakers say sanctions for such behavior should exist. Individuals may disagree.

 

My remaining living aunt was married at seventeen to a man ten years her senior, this immediately after WW2, and was married to him for 52 years until his death, leaving three generations in the wake of that marriage. She was 'jailbait'.

 

Do kids 'grow up' faster these days than in my generation or that of my aunt? Some say yes; some say no. Should statute evolve as we do or remain static? We as a society choose, both in the statutes we enact and also by our personal choices in our lives. It all comes down to choice.

 

I found, by making choices to respect the growth and maturation process from minor to adult, that I missed out on the societal norm in my demographic of, as my fSIL exemplifies, starting a family at a young age; such made intimate interpersonal relations very difficult, simply because there was no meeting of the minds. Perhaps, in another demographic, those choices would have found traction. It is what it is. Does having a clear conscience about not potentially harming any minors help with sleep at night? I guess I'll find out when I get down to that lasting and eternal sleep. At this point it's all nebulous.

[SincereOnlineGuy]

I have done my research thoroughly, there is no empirical evidence proving sex below a certain age is harmful.

 

 

 

So according to your extensive research, four-year-old humans can f*** and s*** one another all they want to, with no harm coming to either side?

 

 

You're an obvious Nobel Prize candidate.

[alexandria35]

Where I live the age of consent is just 14 yrs old which is to young in my opinion. Your question has made me go back and think on my own experience. When I was 16 yrs old I lost my virginity to a 36 year old divorced man. Now I'm trying to decide if that experience damaged me. I think I'm going to have to say no. First of all it wasn't a love type of relationship. I liked going to his place because I had controlling overbearing parents and my stepfather was a bit of lunatic. His place felt like a bit of an escape from my miserable reality. We would smoke pot, have some drinks, talk, listen to music and have sex, but it didn't go on long enough for me to develop a strong emotional attachment to him. I was actually quite detatched from him.

 

Mostly though I don't think the sexual relationship damaged me because I went into it sort of damaged already. Having been raised by dysfunctional drug addicts, being molested at 4 yrs old, being sent off to live with a variety of different people in my youngest and most vulnerable years, all added up to me being an emotionally disturbed teenager, with huge daddy issues. You would have never guessed it to look at me though. Adults were always telling me how very mature and wise beyond my years I seemed. Nobody would have ever known that inside of me was a very hurt lost little girl who really really wanted to be loved. And therin lies the rub. How healthy can a romantic relationship between an older adult man and a young teenager really be? I think both people involved have issues. I don't believe that a healthy well adjusted teenager with a good self image and strong self esteem would ever consider a man old enough to be her father as a sexual romantic partner. I do believe with my whole heart that most young females who consent to having sex with older men are actually looking for a daddy figure. I'm also not sure why an older adult male would want to have a girlfriend that is young enough to be his daughter. I can only guess at the reasons for that. I would assume that at least some of it could be attributed to sexual attraction because lets face it, many teenage girls are breathtakingly beautiful with perfect bodies. But theres lots of stunning and fit adult women out there too, so beauty can't be the only reason behind it. I think a lot of it has to do with ego. Males who need non stop admiration and adulation from their partners regardless of if they merited it or not would probably do well with a teenage girlfriend.

 

After I lost my virginity to the first older guy, I went on to fall in love and have a relationship with another older guy. He treated me like crap and was just basically an ******* to know. Lots of people couldn't freaking stand him and nobody could figure out what a beautiful young girl like me was doing with a jerk like him. Well I thought the sun shone out of his ass and he could do no wrong in my eyes. When I got into my early twenties and experienced more of life and broadened my horizons a little I began to see him for who he really was and I ended it. He slept with strippers and lowlifes and eventually started another relationship with another very young woman. He was 40 and she was 18. She was also the daughter of his bestfriend and that friendship was pretty much over when he started doing the daughter. Then she matured and ditched him too. Now she's married and has children with a man close to her own age. My ex has been single for quite a while now but according to my son (he is my kids father) he still has a very inappropriate interest in very young women and teenagers. This sickens my son, because he is only 25 and says he would never consider a teenage girl as romantic interest, says he could even become attracted that way to a young girl, but he knows his dad would do a teenager in heartbeat if the opportunity arose and my son finds that side of him simply disgusting.