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snarkhunter
2011-02-03 11:54 pm UTC (link)

the idea that an adolescent girl is able to consent to and even pursue sex with an adult in a mature, responsible way

I don't believe this should ever be used as a foundation for policy or anything, but depending on how you define "adolescent," that can be true.

Do I think a 12-year-old can do this? No. But 16? 17? That's an adolescent. (Of course, technically so is an 18-year-old.) And I think it's insulting to the intelligence of older teens to assume that every single one who consented to sex with an 18, 19, 20, even 21-year-old (or maybe even older) has been abused, raped, whatever. I know there are Romeo & Juliet laws for this exact reason, but not all states have them, and the notion of a bright line between 17 and 18 is positively absurd.

Even 17 and 20...still not a problem for me if everyone's consenting. (I speak from the perspective of being the child of a couple who married at those exact ages.)

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sorchar
2011-02-04 12:12 am UTC (link)

Perhaps I should have been clearer that I mean younger adolescents, but I thought that was implied by the context of the post. No one, as far as I can see, has said anything about older teens, or sex between someone who's just under the age of consent and someone who's just over it.

And there's a huge difference, IMHO, between a fifteen-year-old having sex with, say, an eighteen-year-old, and having sex with someone who's in their thirties.

In the context of this discussion, we're not talking about older adolescents - Lucas found that uninteresting. We're talking about a twelve-year-old. We're not talking about teenagers on the verge of adulthood - we're talking about a character barely out of childhood. There's a big difference.

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	snarkhunter 2011-02-04 02:50 am UTC (link)
	Oh, I know what you meant, but I was just thinking out loud about something else that bothered me. And I agree completely that there's a HUGE difference between two teens (even one over 18) and someone who is in their 30s. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	sorchar 2011-02-04 04:00 am UTC (link)
	Gotcha, and I get where you're coming from. When you read about some seventeen-year-old boy being prosecuted for having sex with his sixteen-year-old girlfriend, it's ridiculous. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

silrana
2011-02-04 04:35 pm UTC (link)

Back when I was in college, I was pleasantly surprised to find out in a law class that my home state had a provision that statutory rape had to involve at least a two year difference in ages between the participants, to prevent just that sort of thing. I wish more states had it. Of course, since I haven't lived there in twenty-five years, it may have changed, but I hope not.

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