These days, any mention of a sex crime causes an instant
backlash of horror, disgust and calls for the resurrection of the death
penalty. The only thing worse than a sex criminal, it would seem, would be
someone who commits crimes against children…
However, I will step out on a limb and state that not all
sex crimes are the same. All are heinous, none should occur, but conflating all
sex crimes with murder/ rapes is a horrendous mistake, one that is likely to
result in more horrific crimes happening.
Imagine being a man in love with a young woman, young but
legal. Imagine pursuing a mutually satisfying and completely consensual
relationship with this woman. Now imagine being arrested, sneered at, and
thrown in jail as a rapist: your young lady is not yet legal (although mere
months off) and had run away from home. Her fuming family have tracked her
down, discovered your relationship and far from being accepting and
understanding of their child’s choices, they have decided to make it all your
fault, causing the arrest on the grounds – highly justified grounds, by the way
– of statutory rape.
Statutory rape occurs when a man who is of age (and this can
vary from place to place) enjoys sexual relations with a woman considered to be
too young – usually the age of consent is 16, but it can vary. In this case it
does not matter if the woman’s birthday is the next day, if she was more than
ready and willing, even if she lied about her age. It also does not matter if
the man is only a few months older than her, and the relationship a genuine
loving one: he is held to be a criminal, arrested and convicted as such, and
put on the sex offenders’ list – for life usually.
Further, horny teens sending their boy or girlfriend nude
pictures of themselves constitutes distribution of child porn if they are under
age – this means that not only will they get into trouble with their parents,
but they risk ending up with child porn and sex trafficking convictions, equal
to those earned by those who do target, abuse and exploit vulnerable people for
personal profit…
To offset these imbalances, many nations and states now have
so-called Romeo and Juliet laws that are designed to separate out messy
consensual relationships from evil predatory ones. However, it is clear that
not enough is done on either front: there are still horrific abuses being
perpetrated because those who have the power to stop them do not know or care
enough to intervene, while too many young – and perhaps foolish – people are vilified
and hounded because they loved or trusted the wrong person. These are often
people who are prime fodder for the tabloids: wealthy or middle-class, usually
white, not generally from backgrounds that would render them at risk to abuse.
(Needless to say, they are usually tried and found guilty in said press, with
their actions being weighed less than their looks and personalities…)